If it comes lacking inputs...for one, I wouldn't be TOO terribly surprised, and two, it'll probably flounder and die on the market.
You can pretty much assume that if they do indeed release a TV, then the 45" model will probably run somewhere in the $999 ballpark. Expensive, but not prohibitively so. For a TV that's bound to appeal to tech enthusiasts, it'll be an easy price to swallow.
But there's one problem there. It's a TV bound to attract the tech enthusiasts. Most families are used to spending $550 for a cheap, but good enough 45" TV from Wal-Mart. You might have a few people who'll buy one, but most of the sales will probably be from the tech heads.
But wait? What's this?
No jacks? No HDMI? So that means they can't hook up their receiver to it? Can't hook up a Blu-Ray player? Xbox360? The hell?
Oh. Well. They can talk to it. And it plays high def iPhone games. I guess that makes all the sacrifices worth it. I mean the speakers are good enough. Sure would be nice with a subwoofer, though.
Yeah. Right. The tech enthusiast crowd will snub the thing like a sewer dipped roast beef sandwich. And the mom and pop bunch? It'll probably sell a bit on brand recognition, but if YOUR Apple TV ends up being THE Apple TV, it's almost guaranteed DOA.
You really think Apple is after tech enthusiasts? Been living under a rock the past four years?
You ignored many of the points I made, but namely my point about the content providing. No receiver will be necessary to access all of your content. I imagine xBox 360 will *still* probably work with an Airplay dongle... but even if not, people won't really care too much once the 360 starts going out of style.
More people have iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads anyway... and want something that will integrate with these devices. People who own this iDevice will likely utilize the games that are being released for iOS. In the next two years, especially following the iDevice release, games are going to soar in quality as developers flock to it and away from consoles (talking to you, thenerdal).
Trust me, consumers are willing to pay a light small premium for a paradigm-shifting device vs the old bulky TV. iPhone was released originally for $499 & $599 with no subsidy. Steve Ballmer laughed at it. But since 2007 much has changed, and Apple has the clout to take a chance on pricing their products very competitively. The iPad is a prime example of how this strategy worked in their favor.