[GHFigs]

My pet theory[1] is that they'll jump to 4k/QFHD (3840x(2160,2400)) by using the same panels for a desktop Retina Display and as a stand-alone Apple TV. I think this would "shake things up" without having to sell in iPhone/iPad volumes.

A desktop Retina Display would be a great pairing with a Mac Pro replacement, which one might expect when Intel's Haswell starts shipping, which happens to be around 106 days from now. And they could retain the existing Thunderbolt Display as a lower-end model. (It also helps that Apple's current models all support outputting that resolution.)

A 4k Apple TV would allow them to differentiate from most of the TV market and soak up a fat margin in an area where only one of their major competitors (Samsung) as any position. And it wouldn't cannibalize the $99 Apple TV box in the process. There's still the chicken-and-egg problem of getting 4k content, but Apple, with iTunes and as a pipeline for Netflix, et al., seems to have a good position to get it.

[1] As a person so hip he doesn't own a TV or a Mac, yet finds the speculation irresistible.

[eropple]

I came by this information second-hand so I can't verify it, but I have been told that there aren't enough PCIe lanes going to each Thunderbolt port to drive a 4K panel at 60Hz. Which makes me as a rMBP owner super, super sad if it's true.

[GHFigs]

The 2011 MBP could drive two 2560x1600 displays (chained) through a single port, which requires about the same bandwidth as a single 3840x2160. So I don't think that would be an issue, though obviously the GPU is still a limitation.

I appear to be hellbanned from posting links, but I gather this from page 8 of AnandTech's review of the Thunderbolt display and the Wikipedia article for DisplayPort.