It's a curious observation, the shape of the case is the tipoff but it makes sense if for no other reason than for the one listed in the article, Apple wants to

It's a curious observation, the shape of the case is the tipoff but it makes sense if for no other reason than for the one listed in the article, Apple wants to be using ARM+iOS wherever possible. Apple TV isn't marketed as an iOS device either, they go out of their way to call the firmware "Apple TV Software Updates". At one point the version numbers on the firmware were even different than the iOS version they were built on, it only matters internally. An Apple TV with one more ethernet port would not only look almost identical, but it would be almost functionally identical as well to the point that an Apple TV could do the Aiport's job with the right software loaded. They're also the same price already, we know they can sell this sort of hardware for $99 if they want to, and it would probably be even cheaper as it wouldn't need as much RAM, as much flash, a GPU or an HDMI port at all, nor would it need the infrared remote receiver.