Apple Reportedly Shelved UHD TV Plans More Than a Year Ago

The iPhone maker is now focused on creating an online TV service and redesigning the Apple TV box, the report said citing its sources.

Wall Street Journal had in March reported Apple's plans of unveiling the online TV service in June and launching it in September.

The company is also expected to unveil a slimmer version of its Apple TV box with a redesigned remote control and revamped software, the Journal reported.

It hopes to feature the new offerings at its developers' conference next month, according to the report.

Apple was not immediately available to comment.

The firm has long been expected to enter the consumer television market with a more wide-ranging product than its current Apple TV box that allows users to stream programs from iTunes and other sources, but has said little about those plans. Past expectations that Apple would develop an actual television have so far been disappointed.

In the meanwhile, activist investor Carl Icahn in an open letter to Apple discussed new product categories the firm is set to enter. He wrote, "Apple is poised to enter and in our view dominate two new categories (the television next year and the automobile by 2020) with a combined addressable market of $2.2 trillion, a view investors don't appear to factor into their valuation at all."

Apple has yet to officially acknowledge that it is developing what would likely be an electric, self-driving car.

It is unclear how much insight Icahn has into the iPhone maker's plans for future products. An Apple spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Edited by NDTV staff from original story by Reuters