Having dominated the smartphone, tablet, PMP, laptop and all-in-one markets Apple looks set to turn its attentions to the TV sector with numerous reports suggesting the Cupertino-based company is planning to update its current Apple TV offering next year and launch its first full blown television sets dubbed Apple iTV.

Far from confirmed, Apple iTV rumours have been circulating for a number of months kicking into overdrive 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 confirmed the Apple iTV release date has become one of the most talked about upcoming announcements 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.

Speaking to NBC News, Mr Cook confirmed the TV market was "of intense interest," to the folks at Cupertino.

Speaking earlier this year at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Cook described the current Apple TV offering as a ‘hobby’, whilst revealing Apple shifted just shy of 3 million Apple TV units during 2011, 1 million of which came in the year’s final quarter.

Stating that Apple “doesn’t do hobbies as a general rule,” Cook revealed that the existing 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 believed Apple could “find something that was larger” so that its ventures into the television industry “could go more main-market.”

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

Adding to this onslaught of speculation is the latest news from the Wall Street Journal that Foxconn and Sharp are currently developing prototype designs in Asia. An unnamed source inside one of Apple’s suppliers apparently told the WSJ that the companies were working on a number of prototypes but that: “It isn’t a formal product yet. It is still in the early stages of testing”.