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Apple are on the verge of commercially producing their first television set.

The Guardian reports that Japanese company Sharp has been asked to begin rolling out the TV's from February 2012, ready for a release in the second half of the year.

Peter Misek, an analyst at American bank Jefferies, told the newspaper: "Other TV manufacturers have begun a scrambling search to identify what iTV will be able to do.

"They hope to avoid the fate of other industries and manufacturers who were caught flat-footed by Apple."

One of late CEO Steve Jobs's last wishes, iTV will provide access to iCloud, which will enable users to connect their television to the internet, as well as enabling it to sync with other Apple devices.

Motion and voice recognition is also though to be integrated, with Jobs saying in his biography that it will offer "the simplest user interface you could imagine."

It is believed that Apple has spent between $500 million and $1 billion on manufacturing equipment at the Sharp factory, where work has already begun on setting up the production line for the sets.

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