Do you really believe Apple has time to waste on a “hobby”?

Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion so very doesn’t. He’s written an insightful examination of the deeper plan for the product. He argues that with maybe four or five million to be sold by the end of the year, and with the OS X developer community expanding at a phenomenal rate on strength of the iPhone (and, let’s face it, the Mac) it’s only a question of time before Cupertino ups its game for Apple TV. 

“To date, more than 100,000 developers have downloaded the iPhone software development kit (SDK). This will create all kinds of value on a platform that has arguably sold double the units as Apple TV. Expect Apple to do the same with Apple TV in the near future. It may not be at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), but I guarantee it's coming. They're not going to let the hackers have all the fun. Further, watch for TiVo and Slingbox to do the same,” he writes. Read it.