dark groove is right. The seduction in the idea of all of these apps (available now) running just fine on an HDTV via a next-gen
TV sorely disconnects when you think it through. Many apps have a pretty good dependency on staring at the screen and interacting with it via touch. When you separate the screen from the touch (such as using a TV for the screen and a touch remote control), precision of where you touch will be lost (unless the remote control also has a screen).
If the remote has a screen, then in heavily interactive apps like games, you'll need to spend much of the time looking at the tiny screen in your hands (so you touch the right spots) vs. the big screen nearby.
And the resolution will be a mess when it is upscaled to a screen many times taller & wider than an iPad and at several times the iPad's resolution.
And that will probably be a pretty expensive remote. Etc.
"But, we'll just use our iPhones, iPads, iPods as this remote!". That's great if you are single living alone, but for those customers that share a home with others, the others are going to be mad at you every time you take the "good remote" with you. So then you are almost forced to turn your mobile device into a stationary, dedicated device for the family (not exactly the dream use you had in mind when you bought that iDevice, right?)
As to "the future is the cloud" and all this hope for the NC data center, the biggest problem with that whole concept is the pipe between that cloud and the devices accessing it. The NC data center could be 2050 technology for all I know, but it will still need to pump all this incredible video & audio through pipes that are increasingly constrained by physical limitations, geographical limitations, or concepts like ever-emerging tiered pricing for heavier users (for which many will be heavier users if they are downloading much 1080p video from the NC data center).
Apple's main problem is connecting users to that particular "cloud". Ideally, the prime solution bypasses the DSL & Cable broadband pipes, because the owners of those pipes have ZERO interest in allowing Internet video programs (maybe even the rumored iTunes subscription plan) to cut into their lucrative Video subscription services. Should Apple get any traction with some kind of iTunes video subscription service such that a Comcast, Charter, Time Warner, et all (providers of broadband service) feels any pain in their cable TV revenues, they'll simply raise the price of broadband (because they control the pipes).
And since a person is pretty lucky to have 2 choices for broadband provider where they live (usually the choice is ONE), take a good look at the video offerings of your alternative broadband provider. Even the DSL players like AT&T, Verizon, etc are in the video subscription game now. They also have zero interest in an Apple undercutting their lucrative video subscription plans while using their own pipes to do so. Case in point: even as I typed this this likely Verizon rumor hit this website:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/973387/ (of course, that's 3G and not your wired broadband pipe, but just wait if you aren't already hearing- or experiencing- tiered pricing and/or download caps in your own "unlimited" broadband plan).
For the NC thing to really work (as many dream), Apple will need to be able to bypass the owners of the current broadband pipes. Just building the facility in NC is only a small piece of that puzzle. There was a rumor a few years ago that Apple might buy someone like Dish Network, which would give them a great way to connect directly to individuals without flowing multi-gigabyte video files (files are really huge when you are moving 1080p without too much compression) through Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc broadband pipes. That's along the lines of what else will be necessary to make the "cheaper than cable" iTunes subscription dreams have a better chance of coming true.
Until those rumors start flying again, each time you get fired up about this idea of cutting your cost of cable, while getting all your favorite shows via iTunes and a iOS-equipped next-gen
TV, all you need to do is put yourself in your broadband provider's shoes and think through what you (they) would do to protect the very profitable cable TV subscription revenues they are so accustomed to receiving.
Personally, I can hardly wait for a next-gen
TV myself, but I don't hold a lot of hope for the "cloud" for at least the next few years, at least as long as Comcast (provider of Comcast Cable) or AT&T (provider of U-Verse) are my choices for broadband. How about you?
