Steve's Parting Distraction
Steve Jobs wasn't a person to put his ideas out in the open before it was officially announced, UNLESS, it was to misdirect the competition as a calculated move. I picked up on this the first time i read his Book. It just didn't make sense to talk about a TV display out loud. There had to be a reason, and near death wasn't a good enough reason to reveal insider information on new technology such as a TV. Steve wouldn't buckle to that, he wasn't afraid to die; he knew it would happen. He just needed to strategically place apple into a good spot before it happened, to give the next inline some time to get their feet under them. It was a calculated chess move. Make the competition spend money, resources and endless hours to get engineers to THINK about what Steve could possibly do to the market, and then try and one up Apple before Apple could bring something to market, and it worked.
Smart TV's were coming down the lines 100x's faster than if Steve didn't plant that seed. Tim Cook got sometime as CEO to really set roots in his position all while the competition was off fighting a battle that never really existed.
Apple knows displays aren't a huge money maker, if they wanted a piece of that pie, they would have already made bigger moves in the Display monitor game. Apple doesn't update their displays fast enough on purpose because it's not where they want to make their major profits.
The profit is in 3 categories. Less than $100, $500-$1000 portables, $1000-$2000 MacBooks.
The $100 price range where customers will pay to consume any apple product with out thinking twice. Hence AppleTV in a small black box. It is consumable in the way of toss it out, get a new one when they release a newer model, it's cheap enough not to question the upgrade for the majority of people, and they can move to any style of display via HDMI. They're not stuck with a single display that isn't portable.
$500-$1000 where you have iOS Devices that people think twice but will fork out the money on their credit cards or what not and pay it off over time.
$1000-$2000 big purchases for MacBooks, Huge business for Apple for students, business, hobbyist alike. Bigger crowd = More profits.
A TV that apple would produce would be STARTING at $3,000 in my mind and that's just not a big market for profits in that industry. Look at the MacPro, amazing computer, I own the previous model, but I wouldn't go and replace it anytime soon. Many people keep them for 5 or plus years. But an AppleTV (Box) for $100 I would replace every year if they came out with one with out a doubt.
Put a processor, memory, and access to the App Store with a few gaming controllers, combined with an iOS device for a remote and you have an amazing setup that plugs into the Apple Eco System that people already are invested in.
The AppleTV Display was, in my opinion, a distraction to get the competition off the true nature of what Apple was working on, to buy them some time Tim Cook to build a new solid foundation amongst the shareholders and board, and to give Apple's engineers a bit of time away from the microscope to release something game changing in 2015.
Of course, this is all my opinion
