Carl Icahn remains convinced Apple will build television set, despite report of project's demise

Referring to TheWall Street Journal's story, Icahn told CNBC's Halftime Report that despite having read it he doesn't "even know what it says," insisting that the report was "ridiculous" with a "relatively misleading" headline.

"I'm not backtracking in anyway. I believe they [Apple] will do a TV. That's my belief," he asserted.

On Monday, Icahn issued an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, suggesting that the company should already have a $240 share price and market capitalization near $1.4 trillion. The same letter also proposed that Apple will launch a TV next year, and a car in 2020.

Rumors of an Apple television persisted for years, but petered out some time ago, leaving Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster as one of the few people backing the idea. Earlier today, Munster issued a memo saying he no longer expects the product.

Instead of a full-scale TV, Apple is though to be throwing its weight behind a revamped Apple TV set-top that should be announced at June's Worldwide Developers Conference. It's expected to have support for Siri and an App Store, and feature hardware upgrades such as an A8 processor, a touchpad remote, and greater internal storage.