Is it time for Apple to reconsider an Apple branded HDTV? — Apple World Today

A 2012 article by Bloomberg Businessweek noted that Israel-based NDS, a TV services provider, believes the future of the television is modular. The company showcased a large matrix of six flat-screen TVs, without bezels, that combined to form a honkin’ big TV wall. The displays could be broken up, airing a video in varying sizes near the middle of the wall, with personalized and content-relevant widgets off to the side. With some cinematic 4K content, for example, a viewer could use the whole screen.

NDS used a computer with multiple video outputs to power its six-screen TV wall. This could soon be done using small, mesh networking-capable modules. However, if Apple ever decided to enter the television market, perhaps it could offer a modular TV model powered by a Mac. A Mac mini, perhaps.

NDS Chief Technology Officer Nick Thexton thinks TVs will, in the near future, consist of smaller displays that can be combined to fit a room. Think of 6-in. to 8-in. squares without bezels that you can buy individually, mount on a wall next to one another, and gradually expand the size of the full display to fit your needs. Instead of watching your morning news in theater mode, you might watch much smaller clips and use the rest of the screen for other information.

NDS ran its demo using an iPad, allowing users to change the immersion level — and display size– of a video with simple sliders. So imagine this scenario:

An Apple HDTV with a basic 50-inch central screen. Screen size could be expanded by adding display modules, which you buy as you need ’em or can afford ’em. All of this is powered by a Mac and run using an iPad or iPhone. 

If not a modular Apple HDTV, perhaps Apple will sell transparent screens with a glass bezel that you can fix to the wall in every room of your house. What about screens that hook up to the current Apple TV set-top box (and its descendants) and stream content from your Mac and iTunes. And the screens could use haptic (“touch”) technology.