Gadgets & Stuff

Apple iTV 

Having conquered the laptop, tablet, smartphone Apple looks set to turn its attentions to the TV area with numerous reports suggesting the Cupertino-based company is planning to update its existing Apple TV offering later this year and launch its first full blown television sets dubbed Apple iTV.

Not yet confirmed, Apple iTV rumours have been circulating for a couple of months following the publication of the official Steve Jobs biography in which the Apple co-founder and former CEO said he had “finally cracked” how to change the television market.

"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” Jobs reportedly said. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

Apple iTV Release Date

Although far from established the Apple iTV release date has developed one of the most talked about upcoming publications of the year with Apple CEO Tim Cook recently offering the closest indication yet that the iPhone and iPad maker is planning to out a full television service.

Talking about this during his keynote speech at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference Cook described the current Apple TV offering as a ‘hobby’, whilst revealing the Cupertino based company shifted short of 3 million Apple TV units during 2011.

Asserting that Apple “doesn’t do hobbies as a general rule,” Cook revealed that the current Apple TV unit was testing the waters of the television sector stating the company would need something “special” in order to make TV a “serious category” for Apple.

“The reason we call it a hobby is because we don’t want to send a message to you or our shareholders that we think the market for it is the size of our other businesses” Cook said of Apple TV. He added that he understood Apple could “find something that was larger” so that its ventures into the television business “could go more main-market.”

Although Apple has untaken no indication as to the validity of such claims it is widely believed that the Apple iTV hardware and associated software platform will land before the end of the year.

Late last year analyst Gene Munster proposed the Cupertino based company would follow the 2012 launch of the Apple iPad 3 and Apple iPhone 5 with an Apple iTV release of its own around October with the service to land ahead of the money-spinning Christmas period.

Further implying towards a late 2012 release, a selection of reports have proposed Apple iTV units are to enter production in May giving the Cupertino based company ample time to generate enough stocks for what is expected to be an extremely high profile release.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek claims he saw "early production evidence of iTV" on a recent trip to Apple manufacturing plants in China. Suggesting Apple will produce between two and five million units in time for launch Misek said the manufacturer would introduce a number of "specialty components" to the process.

Adding to this offensive of release date guesswork, forecaster Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets has suggested Sharp will issue displays for the final Apple iTV models to company Foxconn during Q3 with the Apple's China based hardware companion putting the final touches to the next-gen TV ahead of a pre-Christmas 2012 arrival.

"In our view, a holiday launch would make for a very merry holiday season for Apple and consumers," White said. "However, we will continue to monitor the data points surrounding the timing of this launch as they could change."