According to a new industry study, by 2015, 47% of flat panel TVs shipped will have Internet connected features, but the user will still need to connect them at home -- sometime that daunts many users. And this is where Apple will step in.

So far only 40% of connected TVs are connected, and these may well be the early adopters. There's a big opportunity here, and I believe that Apple will take advantage of it next year and unveil its own line of HDTVs. Yep, I've changed my opinion on this and now believe that Apple has the goal, and potential, of shaking up the television business.

"If retina display is ready for prime time (pardon the pun) on the iPad 3, the bigger breakthrough will be if they can deliver retina display to any screen size. If so, how difficult will it be for Apple to create a screen that looks (and acts) like a very, very large iPad?" says "The Sun." "Much of the initial dissent about the value of Apple's iPad when it first launched was that it was simply a large version of the iPhone (without the phone). Apple proved that there was a huge market for this type of tablet device and you can imagine what a 64-inch version might look like (push that further and imagine using your iPad or iPhone as the remote control to flick content on to the screen)."

Rumors are that the upcoming iPad 3 will sport a retina display. That would be quite an achievement. However, it would be even more incredible if Apple were to use the same technology and turn it into a television.

Perhaps my mind has been changed by the fact that the television market is one of the few that Apple has yet to enter. Or perhaps it's the constant predictions by industry pundits that have worn me down. But Jonny Evans, writing for "Computerworld" (http://macte.ch/KIiLw), has convinced me that Apple is working on a line of HDTVs -- and that we'll all want one.

He writes that "Apple has a plan to introduce its own iOS television -- essentially an incredibly classy television set with Apple TV/iTunes/games consoles built-in, a nice and fast low power mobile processor and support for apps."

Evans thinks they might include: apps for television, such as iPlayer; apps for gaming, such as Angry Birds; apps for the Web, such as Safari; apps for communication, such as Mail, Facetime and Skype; and apps for "socialists," such as Ping and Twitter support.

What's more, "The Vancouver Sun" (http://macte.ch/SKGzQ) made an interesting proposal: perhaps Apple will release a "retina display" TV set.

I'm not sure about the retina display (though that would be way cool), but I think Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is onto something. He thinks Apple will launch a new high-definition television in March 2012 with three screen sizes and price points. Chowdry thinks the Apple HDTV would be akin to Bose's pricey VideoWave (pictured), an US$5,200, 46-inch LCD HDTV with an integrated surround-sound speaker system.

The analyst thinks any television set from Apple would have just one cable. He adds that the HDTV will probably be about two inches thick and sport a 16-speaker, Surround Sound system.

-- Dennis Sellers