Apple Likely to Launch 37-Inch TV in 2012

According to highly-placed sources at Apple, the company is likely to launch 32 and 37-inch iTV sets in mid-summer 2012.

The chips for the new iTVs are already under production by Samsung and the displays would be made by Sharp.

Earlier rumours suggested that Apple would be using Siri, a voice personal assistant for voice guided inputs. Related reports indicate that the proposed Apple TV functionality would be integrated into latest iMac computers, instead of a regular stand-alone TV.

Despite a lot of speculation surrounding the release of Apple TV or iTV over the past few years, the company has apparently stepped back with the idea due to relatively poor unit sales of its TV boxes.

Nevertheless, Steve Jobs, the late CEO of the company, told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he had devised a solution to "crack" the challenge of building a TV. The release of the book has reportedly fueled the rumors on the release of Apple TV.

More than building the hardware, it is apparently the provisioning of software content, which is the major challenge to Apple's success.

According to an analyst with Stern Agee, Apple is already devising plans to provision content subscriptions for availing customized channel packages for its member users. The users would be privileged to choose custom content of their liking with a monthly subscription fee on pay per channel basis.

The addition of live TV telecast to its repertoire will surely strengthen Apple's profile. This will enable Apple to offer a complete range of multimedia content on a unified platform.