With the rate Apple is entering and redefining market segments, we might see washing machines and other home appliances designed and marketed by the Cupertino company in our lifetime.

From its hardware and software roots, the company that Steve Jobs co-founded made its first foray into non-computer markets by coming up with the iPod line of portable media players. We all know what followed after that.

Aside from transforming the MP3 player market, Apple practically upended the music recording industry. Despite the large recording studios’ reluctance, and downright opposition for some, Jobs and company altered how music lovers purchase and listen to their favorite tracks. Forever.

After wreaking havoc on the digital music scene, Apple then turned its attention to smartphones by launching the iPhone. Again, the company has changed the smartphone market so much that the former top vendors are still coming to grips with what hit them.

Since then, the world’s former top smartphone sellers have been playing catch up, in what increasingly seems to be a losing endeavor.

And then, again we all know this, Apple launched the iPad, the world’s first tablet computer to really matter. While a number of tech companies, including Microsoft and some of its allies, had previously made and launched their respective tablets, none would become a market success.

Until the iPad came, that is.

Rumor-Enabled Marketing 

These days, Apple TV rumors are so thick you could cut them with a knife. Consequently, every blogger and tech columnist worth his or her salt had something to say about this, which in turn fuels the rumor mongering further.

We all have seen this before. Leaks about secret projects or products being developed coming from unnamed sources (which we all suspect are people working for and ordered to start the fire by Apple itself) begin appearing. Then, tech pundits and mainstream media operators pick up the story and pontificate about the unconfirmed reports while putting on the airs of credibility they think they had.

A simple Google search for Apple will bring back, aside from the usual results, bundles of rumors about what the company is currently preparing to launch.

Apple TVAnd for this season, rumors are swirling around the much rumored and anticipated Apple TV or whatever it would eventually be called. And again, the usual suspects are once again involved or at least invoked.

Apple’s Asian supplier Hon Hai Precision Co., more notoriously known as Foxconn, is reportedly collaborating with Japanese electronics firm Sharp on the iTelevision’s designs. A story from The Wall Street Journal disclosed that the company is testing TV designs with its components suppliers.

Apple is testing designs for an HD large-screen TV set, the report also says. And although the company has tested many TV prototypes before, this report represents a significant step forward for the company’s efforts to redefine another consumer electronics market.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.