World of Apple

A Bloomberg report this week republished by BusinessWeek has reiterated previous rumours that Apple will begin selling it’s rumoured tablet device in March after unveiling it later this month.

Details are thin in the report but the author does speculate that the device will help Apple “capitalize on demand from consumers for devices that can surf the Web and play movies and music.” Additionally the tablet could be competition for Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader according to the report.

In separate but related news analyst Brian Marshall with Broadpoint.AmTech said that the Apple tablet will support multiple carriers and will definitely connect to Verizon’s 3G network.

“The tablet will be supported by multiple [mobile] carriers,” said Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech, citing unnamed sources he said were close to the situation. “Verizon and others,” he continued. “Definitely Verizon. I’ve been told that’s a certainty.”

Speculation is widely expected to come to an end on January 27th when Apple is rumoured to have scheduled a special media event to unveil the touchscreen tablet. The event is said to be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, a common stage for Apple product releases.

Despite reports from multiple sources over the last few weeks insisting that Apple’s media event will be held on Tuesday, January 26 a new source this week is stating that the event will instead be held on January 27.

Digital Daily concurs that the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco with author John Paczkowski adding “So, that rumored Apple event everyone has been jawing about these past few weeks? It’s on and it’s going to be a big deal.”

The event is expected to be the launch base for the long-rumoured multi-touch tablet from Apple.

Along with this weeks purported change of date the Wall Street Journal is also disputing previous details by insisting that the device will feature a 10- to 11-inch display. Adding that the announcement of the tablet will come “later this month” with shipments expected to begin before the end of March.

WSJ also expands its details claiming that Apple has begun talking to outsiders and has now been able to glean the following information from its sources:

• 10- to 11-inch colour touchscreen display.
• Will allow the watching of movies and TV shows and ability to play games, use the internet and read books and newspapers.
• Will redefine how consumers interact with multimedia offering with “integration of live up-to-the-minute information from multiple sources.”
• Requotes Yair Reiner, an analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. stating a $1000 price tag.

In addition to Tablet rumours Mac4Ever is claiming that Apple will also announced iPhone SDK 4.0 beta which will include a “simulator” that will help developers with working with different screen resolutions.

FOXNews reporter Clayton Morris has reportedly spoken to a “source inside Apple” who has confirmed to him a “big” event for January.

Morris corroborates last weeks report that Apple will hold an event in San Francisco on Tuesday January 26, 2010; adding that the event will be focused on “the mobility space” speculating that this event will be related to the iPhone/iPod touch.

Morris offers no further information only going onto speculate that this event could be related to the mythical Apple tablet.

Two reports today suggest that Apple is beginning to order components aimed for the long-rumoured multi-touch tablet. Apple’s tablet is rumoured to be revealed during an event on January 26 and ship later in 2010.

The first report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily states that Cheng Uei Precision Industry has been the beneficiary of an order for “connectors” adding that the company is likely to ship the parts in 3Q 2010, not in line with previous suggestions of Apple timeframes.

The second report from DigiTimes states that Foxconn’s subsidiary Innolux and Apple’s current iPhone panel maker will be responsible for supplying 10-inch panels for the tablet. Glass strengthening will also be supplied by another Foxconn subsidiary G-Tech Optoelectronics.

As previously reported Foxconn is rumoured to be the assembler of the tablet.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times has weighed in on the speculation ahead of Apple’s rumoured special event to be held of January 26, 2010. Bilton offers some inside information about the tablet which is expected to be demoed next month and according to him begin “the year of the tablet”.

According to one senior Apple employee who Bilton spoke to, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is said to be “extremely happy with the new tablet.” Whilst another ex-Apple employee reportedly said that consumers will be “surprised how you interact with the new tablet.”

Bilton also offers some background on the development of the tablet which is said to have stretched back as far as five years, the first version was shelved by Steve Jobs but much of the technology has made it into other products, the iPhone for example.

Bilton also links the tablet to the successful App Store, although this looks like an element of speculation, “one of the barriers to producing the early tablets was the lack of software. The success of the App Store and the eagerness of the publishers show that this won’t be a problem for any new devices.”

FT.com Tech blog written by David Gelles writes that Apple has rented stage time at the Yerba Beuna Center in San Francisco next month. The building which is often home to Apple special events has reportedly been hired about on Tuesday, January 26 2010.

The rumour comes just hours after reports suggested that Apple’s long fabled tablet could make an appearance in January. The same reports suggesting that the touchscreen tablet will have a 7-inch display.

Adding to the rumours, Silicon Alley Insider reports that Apple has approached several iPhone app developers to prepare a demo of apps to run in “full screen mode” next month. The source stated to Silicon Alley Insider that “as long as [developers] build their apps to support full screen resolution — rather than a fixed 320×480 — their apps should run just fine”.

As with previous sources Silicon Alley Insider notes that the January event will only hold a demo of the tablet which will be released later in the year.

DigiTimes is reporting that Omnivision Technologies has received an order for 5-megapixel optical sensors destined for the next-generation iPhone. The sources suggest that Omnivision is expected to supply Apple with between 40-50 million sensors in 2010.

OmniVision Technologies is expected to see CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders for Apple’s iPhone devices grow to 40-45 million units in 2010 from 20-21 million estimated this year, according to industry sources. The sources said OmniVision has secured 5-megapixel CIS orders for the next-generation iPhone model, which will hit shelves sometime during the second half of 2010.

Omnivision is the current supplier of the iPhone 3GS 3.2-megapixel sensor.

Two rumours today from largely accurate sources suggest hat the long-rumorued Apple tablet will come to fruition this coming January and feature a 7-inch display.

Boy Genius reports that a very reliable source to them guarantees that the Apple tablet will have a 7-inch display (presumably multi-touch) and will be announced in January.

Along the same lines the Financial Times in the UK claims that Apple is preparing an announcement next month that many anticipate will be the official unveiling of its tablet.” The FT does not disclose the source of the information.

Boy Genius Report has provided tentative evidence that both iPhone OS 3.1.3 and iPhone OS 4.0 are being used in some form of testing either inside or outside of Apple.

The only information provided is an image containing references to both iPhone OS 3.1.3 and iPhone OS 4.0 which for the sake of clarity can be easily spoofed by adjusting a browsers user agent string.

The current public version of iPhone OS is 3.1.2 was released back in early October making it very like that 3.1.3 is in the works and likely to be presented to developers in the near future. iPhone OS 4.0 would be a major OS release and going on history would see a release in June next year.

AppleInsider writes that Apple is intending to present developers with an external build of Mac OS X 10.6.3 this week.

The third update to Snow Leopard is expected to arrive with developers sometime on Thursday and according to AppleInsider will carry the build prefix of 10Dxx.