"It has a disk, has a network, and you're done." McCarron said.

The chip can also be used in TVs, or even networked media center gateways to store and distribute content across a range of Apple devices, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.

Apple's product strategy revolves around bundling hardware, software and services. Apple logically could put an A4 variant in TV sets or media centers, which would then be able to seamlessly communicate and exchange content with devices like the iPhone or iPad, McGregor said.

"Consumers want all these things to work together, and Apple can very much do that," McGregor said.

Compatible software around the same architecture makes communication between devices easier, though it's not required as emulators could fill the incompatibility gap, McGregor said. However, the A4 chip across a range of devices could bring stability to software development.