Why many people think Apple will make a TV set?

Why many people think Apple will make a TV set?

Most of analysts are showing their concern about Apple's (AAPL) plans to make a television -- an actual TV set, not just a set-top box --
They have "increased confidence" that Apple's iTV is coming, they say into their published forecasts the revenue from its sales: 2 million units in the second half of 2012 and 10 million in 2013. He even factored in a "halo effect" for what they now believes will be called iPanel, whereby anybody who buys one will also purchase either an iPad or an iPhone.

Hold for a while. How do we know this thing is coming?

There are three reasons:

•  Reports that small quantities of polarized films, filters, and IGZO components have begun to ship to   Apple's Asian panel suppliers.
•  Reports Apple is doubling the size of its already massive North Carolina data center.
• The $800 million Hon Hai (A.K.A. Foxconn) spent to buy a 50% interest in    Sharp's  large-panel TV plant in Sakai, Japan.

Moreover, there are plenty of excellent reasons Apple would NOT want to get into TV manufacturing business.

•     The market is crowded with low-cost producers
•     The margins are terrible
•     The machines are big and heavy and often require professional installation
•     They need large retail display areas and lots of warehouse space
•     There's no single global market. (It's NTSC in the U.S., PAL in Europe.)
•     People tend hold on to the TVs for decades. (Apple prefers to sell products that        get frequently replaced --  every two years for iPhones, every three years or so for Macs.)

Dealing with the cable companies that control the local delivery of content is like dealing with mob.

That said, there are a lot of people shouting for Apple to do what it does best: plane and simplify the propagation of remotes, the tangle of cables, the nightmare interfaces that is today's television.