“The common assumption is that Apple is working on a traditional television screen with some super-duper features. Let’s guess that it’s a minimum 40in, possibly with a 3D screen, perhaps retina display to screen 4K movies like the upcoming Hobbit film, with built in Apple TV services (iTunes, Netflix, and so on) controlled by Siri and perhaps interacting with the iPad, iPhone, or some other custom Apple touchscreen remote,” Mark Hattersley writes for Macworld UK.

“This type of device may well be what Apple brings to the party. The problem we have is that few people on the Macworld team can envision such a device being successful,” Hattersley writes. “It’s just not different enough.”

Hattersley writes, “A really interesting article has appeared on Businessweek that outlined research by NDS, an Israeli-based TV provider recently purchased by Cisco systems for $5 billion. They have envisioned a future for the television that is almost completely different to the one we have today… Forget the 40in screen. NDS’ idea of the next-generation television is more like purchasing individual tiles and slotting them together on your wall. The screens could be 6-8in squares (without bezels) so they can be paired together and expanded into a screen that suits your size. You make it bigger by slotting together new smaller screens (cheaper than buying a whole new display). These can be as big as you like (all the way up to the size of a wall) and placed all over the house.”

Read more in the full article here.