Apple "iTV" Rumors Persist And Now A Concept Rendering

Following revelations from Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, long simmering rumors of an Apple "iTV" television set have boiled over with the latest reports claiming it's a matter of "when" and not "if." A new wave of speculation on an upcoming Apple product certainly can't be without concept renderings and that's what we have here from artist Guilherme M. Schasiepen.

In an excerpt from the Jobs biography, Isaacson revealed that the Apple co-founder and visionary felt that he had finally "cracked" the formula to creating a successful TV, believing that a TV needed to be simple, elegant, and fully integrated. This has led many to believe that Apple's next step will be to be debut an iOS-powered Apple HDTV set that would integrate apps including FaceTime and Siri.

Analysts have long been speculating on an Apple-branded television set. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster has been predicting such a move by Apple as far back as 2009 and now believes that Apple could push such a product out to market by late 2012 or early 2013. Other analysts believe that Apple will start off with smaller TVs sporting 15- to 19-inch touchscreens that target the kitchen and bedroom.

It's also been recently rumored that Apple's head of iTunes, Jeff Robbin, has been charged with leading the development for the Apple HDTV. A lack of a major update to the current Apple TV set-top box has further fueled the speculation.

[via 9to5 Mac]