• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 29, 2012

Ready or not for an Apple TV, the market might have to wait longer than expected for the supposedly transformative device. According to Asian research group CLSA, the big release won’t occur until 2013.

“We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event,” reads the research brief first reported by Business Insider.

Either way, “most clients agree that a TV is coming,” writes BI. “The critical question becomes how the video providers fit into the equation and how Apple's offering would/could differ from current TVs beyond iOS/icloud.”

“At this moment, the Apple television is technically fictional,” Fast Company reminds us. “However, numerous pieces of information have suggested a late-2012 time window for the arrival of the iTV and it logically makes sense: Apple's iPad was its last industry-shaking device, and that was a whole two years ago. Slackers!”

Regarding the report from the Hong Kong research firm, Fast Company calls it “probable.” In fact, “Looking at what Apple's up to right now it would seem like a late-2012 launch would be odd.” 

Still, “CLSA does not have a particularly prolific track record … the only previous report we have on record from the firm is an incorrect one from June 2011 claiming that an LTE-equipped iPad would launch ahead of the 2011 holiday season,” MacRumors reports. “The new iPad with LTE support of course didn't launch until earlier this month.”

As CNet reports, “Rumors have flown over the last couple of years that an Apple TV set will debut in the near future. At the beginning of January, sources were speculating a 50-inch screen, and at the end of January Apple was reportedly speaking to major TV component suppliers.”

Meanwhile, in January, USA Today quoted Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as saying: "I do expect Apple to make an attempt [to get into the TV set business], since I expect the living room to remain a center for family entertainment, and that touches on all areas of consumer products that Apple is already making."