iTunes Creator Reportedly Leading Secret Apple Television Project

Rumors have been bouncing around for years regarding Apple and its secret TV project. No, I’m not talking about the $99 media box. I’m talking about a full-blown television set with the words “Made in Cupertino” printed on the back.

Thanks to a quote from Steve Jobs in his recently-released biography, the speculation has regained some traction over the last couple of weeks. Pundits are now reporting that we could see an Apple-branded TV set as early as next year…

Bloomberg added fuel to the fire yesterday by providing more “evidence” of the product’s existence:

“Apple Inc. is turning to the software engineer who built iTunes to help lead its development of a television set, according to three people with knowledge of the project. Jeff Robbin, who helped create the iPod in addition to the iTunes media store, is now guiding Apple’s internal development of the new TV effort, said the people, who declined to be identified because his role isn’t public. Robbin’s involvement is a sign of Apple’s commitment to extending its leadership in smartphones and tablets into the living room.”

If the iPhone 5 rumors taught us anything, it’s that these sources with “knowledge of the project” can’t always be trusted. We don’t doubt that Apple has looked into making TV sets, but will the idea ever make it out of the R&D labs? We don’t know.

However, there seems to be a lot of people who believe that we’ll see an Apple-flavored TV set within the next 24 months. We’d love to see Apple do for TVs what it’s done for smartphones computers, and tablets.

How about you?