Apple’s rumored iTV continues to be the star of the rumor mill as anticipation mounts. The latest rumor suggests that Apple’s design guru Sir Jony Ive has been working on a 50-inch Apple television in his “secret” design studio at Apple.
From USA Today:
Apple is said to be looking at a 42-inch or larger LCD TV with built-in Wi-Fi. Inside the locked-down studio of Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design at Apple, there’s a slick 50-inch TV, according to the source who worked at Apple.
If true, the device is almost certainly Apple’s fabled Siri-enabled connected HDTV that Apple fans have been dreaming about since Steve Jobs revealed he’d cracked the idea in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.
The idea really isn’t too far fetched. Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has sounded off on the idea, and thinks that strong move to bring Apple into the living room is virtually inevitable:
“I do expect Apple to make an attempt,” says Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, “since I expect the living room to remain a center for family entertainment, and that touches on all areas of consumer products that Apple is already making.”
Considering Siri’s immense popularity since it was released with the iPhone 4S, Steve Jobs’ claim that he finally “cracked” a better way to do television, and the increasing number of reports surrounding the device, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see some type of television from Apple in the near future – and likely this year.
Apple’s rumored television is expected to feature Siri-like voice control functionality, and a custom chip (like the A5 used in the iPad 2), and may use features like AirPlay to directly connect to iOS devices, and iCloud could be used to help manage content on the device.
One major roadblock for Apple may be in securing the necessary content to make such a device succeed, especially if they attempt to provide alternatives to the traditional Cable television industry.
