Apple Could Release TV Set in 2012

 Apple is working on a TV set that could appear by the end of next year or early 2013.

According to three unnamed sources, Jeff Robbin, a software engineer who helped create iTunes and the iPod, is leading development on an Apple TV set that goes far beyond the $99 console the company currently has available.

Interest in a potential TV set was sparked by the release of Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs’s authorized biography Monday. In the biography, Jobs told author Walter Isaacson he had finally discovered how to build an integrated, wirelessly synched TV set with “the simplest user interface you could imagine.”

Although Apple declined to comment, sometimes-reliable Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says a TV set is indeed in the works and could be announced by the end of next year or in 2013. The TV set could be accompanied by a cloud-based system that would allow users to access and search for content obtained through Apple and third-party services such as Netflix.