Onboard Apple TVs In Future Television Sets?

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We all know that the Apple TV system is a pretty solid way to get streaming content on our televisions, with the help of a decent internet connection. And there are plenty of similar set-top boxes out there that help get content from the internet to our televisions. But Apple’s got an interesting new twist in mind–what if you didn’t need the set-top box? And now that’s got them moving in a new direction to match: AirPlay licenses for televisions.

Some televisions actually come with ethernet jacks already. And others take the next step and pre-load wi-fi connections into their frames. But what Apple’s out to do is take the box off the top of the set and instead integrate it directly into the television itself. Under a setup like this, your iPhone or iPad would serve as the set-top box (and since it’s already serving as the remote in some cases this isn’t a huge leap), and once you bought your content from iTunes, you’d then be able to fire it directly to your television. Indeed, this was the subject of earlier speculation here about a month ago looking over some job listings, though then, we wondered about Apple making their own televisions as opposed to licensing AirPlay.

Some might consider this a bad move, cannibalizing business from Apple TV, and that would be a fair assessment, if it weren’t for the fact that Apple TV can quickly become a separate market segment of its own. While new televisions would come with AirPlay, two important segments would be left. One, those holdouts who don’t join the Apple army, and two, older televisions who couldn’t get in on the action, like every television currently manufactured, by virtue of the AirPlay license not existing at the time.

It’s not a bad idea; I don’t look for Apple to take over the market with this one, but it will give iPad and iPhone users added value, and likely win over a few people who previously owned neither. They’re still talking this over, so no word on when you’ll be able to stream to your television just yet, but I wouldn’t look for it to be here any time soon.