Apple TV Sets Could Hit Shelves This Year

Call it the iBoobTube. Apple is poised to enter the television set business, perhaps as early as this fall, offering screens bundled together with iTunes and Apple TV all in one, a former Apple exec tells Daily Tech. Apple's previous attempts at getting into television, most notably the Apple TV set-top box, have been among the company's biggest failures; nevertheless, with Google and other competitors all stalking the television market, Apple could feel the need to compete there, too. "You'll go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV," the source says. "It's perfect."

Teaming up with a major electronics supplier, Apple is aiming to "blow Netflix and all those other guys away," the former exec says. Apple's televisions would compete with its manufacturing partner, but that is not a deal-breaker. "If you have to be competing with somebody, you want to be competing with yourself," he says. Some recent Apple job listings suggest that a standalone Apple TV set is indeed in the works, although it may be too optimistic to expect one as soon as this fall, CNET notes. (More Apple TV stories.)