A man looks at his Apple iPad in front outside an Apple store in downtown Shanghai. The third-generation iPad has faster chips, fourth-generation wireless, a sharper display and a better camera. Reuters/Aly Song
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, a prominent Apple analyst, who has had some success with past predictions, this week
issued a note to investors stating that he believes Apple will unveil a TV in time for the 2013 holiday season that incorporates a host of features.
In the note, republished on the Apple Insider blog, he says: "We expect the beauty of the design to be a feature, but the most important feature will be the ability to use the TV as the main interface for the living room across multiple devices. We believe the TV will include Siri and FaceTime. The biggest item unlikely to come with the TV will be unbundled channels."
In the note he also states that the 47-inch set will cost $1500 and the 55-inch model $2000 when they hit the stores next November.
This is the latest in a string of rumors that have been appearing in recent weeks about Apple's expected entry into the TV market. Last week, investment bank Jefferies & Co claimed that the company was already putting the finishing touches to its TV set. However, when the claims were investigated, all that could be established was that Apple had been in contact with a number of cable operators about a TV-related product.
According to the Wall Street Journal -- which was the first news source to correctly predict the iPad Mini -- this product is most likely to be a reimagining of Apple's Apple TV. The device currently allows users to wirelessly stream content from any Apple device to their TV but the Journal believes that an all-new model is in the pipeline that will act as a set-top box complete with iPad-style navigation and interface and the ability to pause and rewind live TV broadcasts.