AirPlay compatible TV’s coming soon?

Apple is looking to license AirPlay to TV manufacturers, according to a new report from Bloomberg. TV’s with built-in AirPlay support would allow users to stream media directly from their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and other Apple hardware, directly to the TV without the need of an Apple TV box. The “devices that could be used for video may be available this year,” according to Bloombergs source.

This report from Bloomberg is significant because it seems to address the long discussed rumors of an Apple branded television. Instead of Apple producing an actual television to compete with the TV heavyweights, they can instead license the use of their AirPlay streaming media technology and be included in a wide range of televisions. This would be a winning situation for nearly everyone involved, including the TV makers, Apple, and the consumer.

To make this more convincing, Bloomberg isn’t the only one predicting that Apple will enter the TV space soon. An analyst from Morgan Stanley mentions a “new Smart TV product category in 2012-13” as one of the driving forces of future growth for Apple and their stock price, although no sources are directly cited.

AirPlay is the wireless streaming service in iOS and Mac OS X that lets you stream media between Apple hardware, it’s very easy to use and becoming increasingly popular with iOS users. Currently, Apple licenses AirPlay only to stream audio, so a move to stream video as well seems like a natural progression of the service.

Bloomberg has been a reliable source of Apple rumors in the past, accurately predicting several aspects of iPhone and iPad 2. Another indicator that this is more than just a rumor is that the well-connected Jim Darymple of Loop Insight is reporting on it, and typically Loop Insight shies away from the more outrageous Apple rumors.