Apple's rumored forthcoming connected HDTV could immediately make the Cupertino, California tech giant a giant in an entirely new industry.

According to the conservative estimates of Ben A. Reitzes of Barclays Capital, an Apple product offering of no more than $1,500 could put the iPhone maker on pace to claim as much as 5% of the HDTV market in the product's first year of availability. Along with that market share would come roughly $17 billion in revenue.

In the big picture, Reitzes tells investors, we have to view Apple's TV product as more than just a snazzy flatscreen with iOS integration.

"Apple's eventual television could be so much more than a TV — including gaming, video, communication, content delivery, apps, computing and all the capabilities of the current Apple TV — it is not really fair to compare it to products already available on the market," Reitzes proposes.

"It appears more and more likely that the company is actively engaging partners about a potential device and content," he adds. "If Apple were to sell a TV, we continue to believe its margins and pricing could be industry leading given its vertical integration with content. We believe that Siri could be used as a groundbreaking interface for TV,which could be used as a content hub — glued together by iOS and iOS devices."

Although the industry feels geared up and poised to welcome the Apple HDTV this summer, Reitzes believes a launch may not actually come until after Apple enters fiscal 2013, which begins this October.

Source: Barron's