In the on-again, off-again online chatter about the Apple TV, two things are certain: First, it’s treated like the bastard stepchild of Apple hardware; and second, that doesn’t make it a failure. A third thing is much less certain: Whether the Apple TV is a placeholder for a real Apple TV. Let me explain. First, various industry experts have been predicting for years that Apple would eventually produce an all-in-one Apple TV unit — the screen, the hardware, the software. Basically, glue an Apple TV to the back of a flat-screen TV and integrate the remote.
