The 3.5 years that Apple spent working on the first iPhone before releasing it in 2007 is a indicator of the amount of work Apple puts into new products. It takes an immense effort to invent ground breaking technology.

Apple doesn’t launch things just because they can. They endlessly toil away behind the scenes to refine the small details. This is apparenly what is happening with the AppleTV SDK.

Simply putting Apps onto the AppleTV causes many problems.

List of Problems

• Are users going to buy AngryBirds for the 3rd time just to play on the TV? ( Don’t forget that you can AirPlay iPhone and iPad apps over to the AppleTV now—no extra app purchase needed.)

• How are they going to control the game? I’m betting the controller will be an iPod Touch/iPhone app, but how are people who don’t own these devices going to use it?

• Besides games and video, what kind of Apps make sense on the TV?

• Isn’t an NBC app going to cut into iTunes profits? Is NBC even willing to make an app for AppleTV?

• Is a $99 device that plays all the same AppStore games going to hurt iPod Touch sales?

Apple is either working on something revolutionary, or they are not even thinking about it.

My bet is it is something revolutionary, and it will have us all staring with dropped jaws wondering how we never thought of it before. It might be this year, or in a few years, and I can’t wait for when it happens.