iMac would come with TV functionality in early 2012

According to some new reports, Apple will release iMac with full-fledged TV functionality.

Brian Blair of Wedge Partners noted on Wednesday that Apple intends to design a TV but before that iMac with TV functionalities would be launched. iMac will thus be redesigned for functions of TV, in the first half of 2012, with Apple TV software and iCloud features. Siri could also be integrated into iMac.

From Forbes,

There has lately been widespread speculation about Apple jumping into the TV market, due among other things to passages on the subject in the new Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. The book says that Jobs wanted to “create an integrated television set…that would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud,” Blair points out.

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“We think this makes sense because while we typically think about the newest TVs hanging on the wall in large form factors,” Blair wrote, “Apple could effectively start with what they already have on the manufacturing line and slowly push their offering from 27 inches and scale up from there to 32 inches and then move on to the 42, 50 and 55 inch market.”

From AllthingsD,

It’s not an outrageous idea, particularly as an interim step on the way to a true television set. Or as a good reason for consumers to abandon their current TV sets in favor of iMacs. This would be particularly compelling if Apple was able to persuade the cable companies to stream their content though the Apple TV interface. Add to that AirPlay mirroring on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, voice navigation via Siri, and integrate it all into a 42-inch or better screen, and and you’ve got a pretty good reason to watch TV in your office. Or mount your PC on the living room wall.