Apple to release 'genuinely new' products this year - Tim Cook

Apple CEO promises new product categories to be launched this year

Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised that the company will release a number of entirely new products this year.

"There will be new categories. We are not ready to talk about it, but we're working on some really great stuff," Cook told the Wall Street Journal.

However, Cook did not reveal the kinds of new products the company will be releasing, re-opening speculation over the products it is currently working on.

The news follows a number of years since the launch of the iPad, the company's last "blockbuster" product, whose sales growth is now slowing. It also follows two years in which Apple's big product launches have largely disappointed - involving only updates to existing products, such as the iPhone.

In recent years, the company has been the centre of speculation that it plans to release an "Apple TV", a high-end display intended for the living room that would offer iTunes-style downloadable content. The company reportedly wanted to brand it "iTV", but was blocked by the UK's own ITV independent television station.

The TV would, according to speculation, be a 4k unit, which few current broadcasts anywhere in the world take advantage of.

It has also been suggested that Apple is working on an "enterprise iPad" to increase sales of tablet computers into organisations.

More recently, it has also been rumoured to be working on a "smartwatch", which would pack the computing power of an iPhone into a wristwatch. These rumours persuaded rivals, including Samsung, to beat it to market with their own products.