Toshiba just announced lay-offs because they can't make any money selling TVs, so if you think Apple wants to enter the razor thin single-digit margin world of TVs you're not thinking like a business would.
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/artic..._to_cut_3000_jobs_from_struggling_tv_division
Now, making a "converter box" with a nice Apple GUI and all the bells and whistles is another matter entirely. Let some other company make 5% selling the glorified panel...
Think about it, does the Apple Store at the mall really want to stock, sell, and service 50" or 60" televisions for virtually no profit, while taking away all that physical space from tiny, high margin products that people upgrade every couple of years?
Ain't gonna happen in my opinion.
I don't wholly disagree with you at all and have thought for a long while that it's more likely that the brunt of Apple's TV efforts would be focused on a box as opposed to a display for countless reasons, not the least of which is how decimated the industry in general is not to mention the difficulties in stocking, displaying and servicing these items in Apple Stores.
Oh yeah, Best Buy's half dead and what big players are left? Costco, Sam's Club, Target and Wal Mart? Apple will partner with them to sell a TV, oh, for sure............!!!
Anyways, there's just a lot of complications that go along with a full-blown TV, and realistically, most people don't upgrade their TVs nearly as often as Apple's other products, which makes it a lot harder to progress with the software given that so many would be running old hardware. But if you focus on the box being the center of it, at a much more reasonable price, people could be enticed to upgrade more often and Apple could be more progressive. This is why I expect a standalone box of some sort to be a major part of Apple's TV strategy either way they go, box only or full TV.
That said, I could also easily see them offering 2-3 different displays in a sort of small, small/medium and large configuration. Perhaps 32"-37", 40"-46" and 55-65". These displays though would likely be Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled monitors with only basic software built in to wirelessly communicate with iOS and Mac OS devices for AirPlay and the main TV processing box using some sort of WiFi-direct connection. Perhaps they'd run with the standard HDMI cable, but you'd have to think that a big selling point of an Apple TV display would be the utmost in simplicity, hence wireless sans a power cord. I'm sure they'd integrate a camera for making FaceTime calls as well.
But again, these would basically be large 1080P monitors more than full HDTVs. I don't think we'll see 4K in an Apple TV display for at least 2-3 years. They just went 1080P in iTunes a year and a half ago, Netflix isn't running at 4K, and H.265 is still more than a ways away from covering 4K-encoding suitable for the masses. Plus, margins!
But really, if you don't think Apple could find a way to be profitable making a display, you're kidding yourself. It might not be their most profitable item, but they haven't been as successful as they've been by accident. They can find a way, and if they make it a compelling enough option in the way that it works with the box and your other devices, it'll sell. They'll find a way to do it cheap and they'll do it right. I think they'll shock people with their pricing. Remember, no one thought the iPad would be less than $1000 before Steve Jobs hit a button and $499 dropped down. And don't compare a 1080P monitor with only basic software and i/o support with the Thunderbolt display. These would be two very different products.
I also wouldn't be shocked to see them partner with cable providers to subsidize the hardware. It's long been suggested that TVs would begin to be sold in a subsidized manner with cable contracts, and Apple knows that no matter what tech they use for content delivery, there's no getting around the cable company being involved. And while I do think it's less than likely that this will occur, again, I wouldn't be shocked if it happened.
I'm as fascinated by what Apple's planning to do with TV as anyone, and given how much I love my Apple TV boxes that I have now, I am very excited to see what a more comprehensive option will look like. I'm almost certain that we'll see a control box of sorts, but I also find it hard to believe that Apple's not going to want to allow for the option of users having a complete Apple television experience, so I do think we'll see a few displays as well. As great as having a box that handled all content would be, if you still have to bother turning your TV with the crappy interface on and making sure you're on the right input, it's still not a complete solution. I for one am so far beyond sick of dealing with my UIs on my TVs, and I will gladly be one of those people looking to buy a few Apple displays down the road. Only non-Apple display I'd want to use is my projector, as it's just a different beast and I don't expect Apple to go down that road anytime soon. But if they do...!