Apple iTV prototypes in Canada: if true, could this be a hint of an intentional strategy?

I do believe many of this site's visitors, with an interest in "personal cloud" style storage of their most precious media, would also like to cut their cable bills. A more a la carte approach seems rather appealing, given I believe on average we're getting more of our entertainment from the internet, and spending less time watching traditional scheduled TV programming.

I think the most recent Apple iTV rumours could actually be interesting to follow, particularly with the recent Canada twist, like The Verge's Apple 'iTV' prototypes already in testing at Bell and Rogers in Canada? article.

Why? Well, what if iTV is released for real, in Canada, and only in Canada. Wouldn't that be a great way to smooth out the issues on a smaller scale first? Then grow an audience, and favorable word of mouth. Finally, this virally generated demand spreads across borders, and across the world, through word of mouth, via the internet, of course.

Wouldn't such a scenario exert pressure on the traditional networks, who are currently making it hard for Apple to actually sign deals?

No matter how you feel about Apple, the inevitable cable industry shake-up should be pretty dramatic these next few years, especially since the threat of capped home broadband threatens to pretty much cripple most useful streaming and cloud offerings we see touted everywhere lately.

The capping situation in my household seems to be getting worse, since I first discussed here

Here's my internet provider's recent billing cycle usage report:

I suspect I'm not alone, with the success of streaming.

So the real shake-up may wind up being how can Apple, or any streaming content provider, can find a way go allow cable companies to stream their "third party" content into our homes, without having to resort rather silly Netflix bandwidth de-tuning, or other blurry/blocky non-HD silliness.

Yes, it's an obvious conflict of interest, when your TV provider is also your internet provider.

Honestly, it's hard to tell if we're moving forward or backward right now. Thoughts? Opinions? Please comment below.

Feb 7 2012 11:57am Update:
I just spotted a very similar theory, admittedly posted before mine, by "gps4cam" in the comments below The Verge's Apple 'iTV' prototypes already in testing at Bell and Rogers in Canada? article.

See also excellent comment left by site visitor Renny Phipps here below, giving a unique Australian perspective.