Over at BusinessWeek, Arik Hesseldahl makes a modest proposal that makes a lot of sense to me: “Apple should consider making iTunes an ingredient brand by embedding it as an application on smart TVs from other manufacturers.”
Hesseldahl continues, “Imagine the possibilities: TV sets will be marketed with “iTunes inside” and boast a remote control that itself includes an iTunes button. Pushing the button triggers something very similar to the AppleTV experience, and contain links to the iTunes Store, allowing movies, TV shows, and music to be downloaded directly to the TV set and even shared with the nearest PC, iPod, and iPhone. AppleTV could be a feature on TVs from Samsung, Vizio, and—dare I suggest it?—even Sony, among others.”
I’d buy it. I don’t know if Apple, which always likes to have absolute control of its products, would go for it though. For the rest of Hesseldahl’s arguments in favor of the idea, read Why Apple Should Put iTunes Inside Your TV