Rumour: Apple to launch iTV in Q3 2012

Apple will begin preparing materials for iTV in Q1 this year ahead of a Q3 launch, DigiTimes is reporting.

The site has said that Samsung began producing chips for the sets back in November, with Sharp to produce the TVs.

Its sources added Apple may announce the next generation of Apple TV set-top boxes at some point this year.

The company is set to host an event later this month in New York according to TechCrunch, but will more likely focus on iBooks and publishing than anything else.

Rumours of iTV have being doing the rounds since the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who said in his autobiography that he had "finally cracked" the TV space.

"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," he said. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine."

The TV set is rumoured to support Siri. The developer of iTunes is said to be on-board.