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Best Buy: That Apple TV survey was 'hypothetical'

Yesterday, a Best Buy survey discussing a $1,499 Apple television leaked. Today, the company says it was blown way out of proportion.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
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Best Buy said it authorized a survey that discussed the as-yet announced Apple TV, but insisted that fuss over the survey is much ado about nothing.

"The customer survey was a routine offer effectiveness survey conducted by one of Best Buy's research partners," Best Buy told Wired in a statement last night. "Any brand reference was hypothetical. The survey is no longer available."

Apple TV rumors have been swirling over the last several months after co-founder Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson that he had "cracked" the code for a revolutionary television. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has said that the television could launch later this year, and feature iCloud integration and applications.

Although many of those rumors seemed loosely founded at best, they got a credibility boost earlier this week when the leaked Best Buy survey surfaced. Respondents were given a description of an "all new 42-inch Apple HDTV" that would come with iOS integration, application and iCloud support, and a built-in iSight camera. The 1080p LED would retail for $1,499.

Despite that, there were good reasons to question the authenticity of Best Buy's survey. Chief among them is the fact that Apple is notoriously secretive and only allows retail partners to know what it has planned when the time is right. It's possible Best Buy wouldn't know what Apple has planned.

There's also the issue of the television's price. Last year, Munster said that he believes Apple will be charging twice as much for its televisions than those currently found on store shelves. Based on Best Buy's survey, the Apple television's pricing is in-line with current deals.

So, what can we expect from Apple's TV? There's no way to know, since Apple hasn't even confirmed that it exists.

Still, the rumors keep coming. The latest: According to The Globe And Mail, citing sources, Apple is in talks with Rogers and BCE in Canada to make them TV launch partners.

None of the companies included in this story--Apple, Best Buy, Rogers, or BCE--immediately responded to CNET's request for comment.