Apple May Introduce Television Called ITV, Jefferies Says

Apple Inc. (AAPL) may announce a television product called the iTV as video content becomes the iPhone maker’s next major focus, according to a Jefferies & Co. analyst.

User-generated video from customers who use iPads and iPhones as recorders may also play a role, giving Apple “the ability to leverage content into a YouTube-like model,” the analyst, Peter Misek, wrote in a note today. Misek, who in the note gave no time frame for the product announcement, recommends buying Apple shares.

The Cupertino, California-based company may buy access to exclusive and non-exclusive programs, possibly through a partnership with carriers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., Misek said. “Lower margins and higher risks” are likely to drive away Apple from creating its own content, the analyst wrote.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died Oct. 5, had said in an interview that he “finally cracked” how to build a TV with a simple user interface that would wirelessly synchronize content with Apple’s other devices, biographer Walter Isaacson wrote last year in “Steve Jobs” (Simon & Schuster).

The company’s television-related product efforts have been limited to a $99 device called Apple TV that connects to a set and provides access to content from Netflix Inc.’s streaming service, iTunes and YouTube.

Apple rose 0.9 percent to $463.97 at the close in New York. The shares have gained 34 percent in the past 12 months.

To contact the reporters on this story: Heather Perlberg in New York at hperlberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net