60-inch Apple TV Rumored for Release Later This Year

Apple, a company known to launch rampant rumors at the slightest hint of a new product release, is now rumored to be making its own television set.

The set will go on sale later this year for $1,500 to $2,500, according to an analyst.

A research note states the iTV will be 60 inches on the diagonal, but could also come in 50 and 55-inch versions, according to Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, who spoke to the Associated Press. Apple will also release a small iRing that will fit on viewer's fingers, allowing users to control the screen by pointing.

The television set will also come with tablet-like mini iTVs with 9.7-inch screens, the same size as the full-size iPad, according to White. The iTV will have the ability to send video to the smaller screens around the house wirelessly, similarly to the way cable and satellite companies allow video communication between set-top boxes and iPads and other tablets.

The report is based on visits with unnamed Chinese and Taiwanese companies that supply Apple with components, White said.

Apple doesn't comment on products before launch events, though Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he wanted to remake the television and had figured out a way to do it.

Last year, there were numerous analyst reports that Apple would launch a television set in 2012. Apple currently sells the Apple TV, which is a small box that connects to a television, allowing viewers to watch content from iTunes on their television, though it is not a television.

Apple previously revolutionized the music computer markets with the introduction of the iPod, a portable device that allows users to put all their music tracks on one device in the form of mp3s, and the iPad, a portable tablet computer that was the first of its kind. Many other electronics companies have since released their own versions of mp3 players and tablet computers.