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Apple reportedly manufacturing test batch of first smart TVs

Apple this month is reported to have begun production of the first prototypes of its much-anticipated connected television sets at one of its overseas manufacturing facilities ahead of a general production ramp expected to begin late in the 2012 calendar year.

The news, which was attributed to "informed sources" speaking to the China Business News, was picked up and translated by the WantChinaTimes earlier on Monday.

In particular, the publication cited its sources as saying that this initial build plan is taking place in one of Foxconn's Shenzhen plants as a trial production run, which typically produces a small number of assembly-line-quality prototypes for Apple to put through its design test verification stages. No further details were reported.

While Apple's foray into the big-screen, connected TV business has been a popular topic of discussion amongst industry watchers for several years, few — if any — reliable details surrounding the project have surfaced outside of a claim by the company's late co-founder Steve Jobs to biographer Walter Isaacson that he had 'cracked' secret to a simple HDTV.

Jobs's vision for a connected TV, disclosed vaguely to Isaacson prior to his passing last October, would see the device synced with all of a user's devices, and with Apple's iCloud service.

The simplified HDTV would reportedly spare users from having to use complex remotes for multiple devices like DVD players and cable boxes. More specifically, Isaacson wrote in the best-selling biography that Jobs "wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant."

Earlier this month, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said his manufacturing firm was "making preparations" for an Apple television, but development or manufacturing had not yet begun. But days later, Gou issued a statement to reporters in which he backtracked on those claims, stating that "[a]ny reports that Foxconn confirmed that it is preparing to produce a specific product for any customer are not accurate."