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Apple Tablet Confirmed by Oppenheimer - Launch in April
Brandon Davenport
There has been a hurricane of rumors, leaks, supposed release dates and specs. The Apple tablet has been Vapour-ware since it was first announced, but we now have another (huge) peice of the pie to solve this mystery (thanks to Kevin Rose on Twitter :D). A company called Oppenheimer has just released a document depicting the details we have been dying for. They have uncovered several tidbits about Apple's forthcoming tablet.
First, it appears Apple will begin ramping production in February, implying that the tablet could launch in late March or April (barring production hiccups). Their checks also suggest that the iPad's display will be a 10.1" LTPS based LCD screen, not an OLED display as other rumors have suggested.
Full documentation after the break.
Key Points from the documentation
The February ramp schedule suggests a late March or April commercial release, since Apple will need to build at least 5-6 weeks of inventory before going live. Our checks also indicate that the device will have a 10.1" multi-touch display using LTPS LCD technology (as on the iPhone), not OLED.
Our checks into Apple's supply chain indicate that the manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action and should begin to hit a mass market stride in February. At this stage Apple appears to be sizing its supply chain to support production of as many as 1M units per month.
Contacts in the US tell us Apple is approaching book publishers with a very attractive proposal for distributing their content. Apple will split revenue 30/70 (Apple/publisher); give the same deal to all comers; and not request exclusivity. We believe the typical Kindle/publisher split is 50/50, rising to 30/70 if Kindle is given ebook exclusivity.
Quoted from Full documentation (link below)
Conclusion
We should still all take this with a pinch of salt, but still we think it is time to get excited. All in all the Apple Tablet will hopefully be a usable and helpful device, not just a novelty. Also the price has not been confirmed, but it is sitting around $800.00 to $1000.00 and we should expect deals with Verizon, and not so much AT&T (Verizon Exclusivity).
View -- Full documentation PDF
