What’s the latest on the iTablet?
It seems like every day there is a new rumor or two on the much-ballyhooed but as yet unconfirmed Apple iTablet. One of the newest is just a dandy, in the form of big news from Taiwan.
There is a new report out of Taiwan that FoxConn, the manufacturer of the iPhone, is starting to stockpile the parts required to produce the iTablet. If this latest rumor is correct, FoxConn is getting ready to produce as many as 400,000 tablet computers for Apple, with a production target somewhere in the first quarter of 2010. The report was published in the Taipei, Taiwan-based industry publication, and reported in a story by ChannelWeb.
The Taipei’s report said, in part, “The tablet PC features will focus more on e-book functionality rather than music, and … based on Apple’s marketing strategy, long battery life, quick Internet connectivity and an easy-to-use user interface will be key features of the device.” Those are fairly specific feature descriptions, though they are not completely new in this particular compartment of the Apple rumor mill.
Foxconn is a popular Taiwanese manufacturer of electronics and computer parts, including the iPhone, and could tap a subsidiary (Innolux Display) for the 10.6-inch displays that have been rumored to make up the touchscreen portion of the Apple tablet. Since Apple already has a positive relationship with FoxConn based on the iPhone, this rumor makes a great deal of sense.
It also makes sense to produce a tablet with prodigious e-book capabilities. Such a device could replace Amazon’s Kindle, even at a much higher price, especially if the iTablet was able to run apps such as those from the App Store, or even better those that are OS X-based. A device that combined the functionality of the Kindle and a netbook would be a welcome addition to almost any student’s technology arsenal, as well as a good fit for many consumers.
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