Bloomberg reports that the software engineer behind iTunes, Jeff Robbin, is now working on an HDTV for Apple. The news follows Steve Jobs’ admittance to biographer Walter Isaacson that he had finally figured out how to build an integrated HDTV that wirelessly synchronized content with other Apple devices.

“It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” Jobs told Isaacson in the biography “Steve Jobs,” released to bookstores yesterday by publisher Simon & Schuster.

According to the report, Apple already has a prototype in the works and may introduce an actual retail product by late 2012 or 2013. But one unnamed individual states that the existence of a prototype doesn’t actually mean Apple will release an HDTV product. As it stands now, the company hasn’t acknowledged that it’s developing any type of related product outside its current Apple TV box despite Steve Job’s biography.

But Apple is now in a better position to offer a complete HDTV package thanks to Siri and iCloud. With iCloud, users could store their video, music, pictures and other content on Apple’s servers and stream that content directly to the HDTV. Siri’s voice-control technology could help consumers search for content by simply speaking to the device.

Even more, Apple may find a way to allow users to install apps directly on the HDTV itself so that gamers can play in full 1080p and use their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch as a wireless controller. Just recently, Valve Software’s Gabe Newell said that he expected Apple to change the definition of console gaming in the living room. Perhaps he knows more than he’s willing to admit.

Microsoft is gearing up to turn its Xbox 360 console into a TV receiver with the launch of its new interface on November 25 (Black Friday). The console currently offers movies, TV shows and music to rent, purchase and download. But the new Siverlight-based service will seemingly make the device more of a multimedia hub than a gaming center offering HBO Go, SyFy, Comcast programming, FiOS programming and more.

An unnamed source close to the project said that one of Apple’s goals with the HDTV is to let users more seamlessly search for a show or movie by possibly integrating listing from Netflix, Hulu, cable Tv programming and other sources into the HDTV’s interface. But that would mean content providers will need to change the way they make available their movies and TV shows.

Unlike Google TV which is a Smart TV platform co-developed by Google, Intel, Sony and Logitech for 3rd-party HDTVs, Apple will be providing both the hardware and software for its solution. Currently there’s no word if the HDTV will replace the current Apple TV digital media receiver, or be sold as a separate entertainment option.

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry thinks that Apple’s HDTV will be similar to the Bose VideoWave TV. “Apple HDTV is directionally similar to Bose VideoWave TV, in terms of simplicity, image and sound quality, and reducing clutter,” he said, adding that Apple will push the concept even further using its “spartan-but-elegant design sensibility.”

Will Apple revolutionize the living room like it did with the mobile sector after launching the first iPhone?

SOURCE via Bloomberg