Sam OliverBuilding on earlier rumors, the Chinese-language Commercial Times is citing sources within the PC component supply chain who say Foxconn Electronics — the US trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry — "is in the running to land orders for a netbook from Apple."
Outside of adding that Mac maker's 13-inch MacBooks will become Foxconn's major growth contributor during the second quarter, no further details were included in the report, which was translated by DigiTimes.
The Commercial Times sparked a wave of speculation a little over a month ago when it reported that Taiwan-based Wintek would start shipping touch panels to Apple sometime during the third quarter of the year for the launch of an unknown netbook product.
A pair of sources speaking to Dow Jones quickly backed the report, with one saying the panels were sized "between 9.7-inches and 10-inches" while the other said specifications for the project were still "under evaluation."
News agency Reuters later jumped in on the action, claiming that its own sources were saying Apple would "take third-quarter delivery of newly developed 10-inch touchscreens from Taiwan."
While the specifics of these reports are up for debate, the product in question is believed to be one and the same with the long-running Apple Newton tablet project reported by AppleInsider back in 2007.
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97 Comments
I agree, this does sound like the Tablet.
I think Apple will release a unique interface for the tablet built around the iPhone's interface, but I'm not sure if it would use iPhone APIs or will just run regular Mac software.
....but how long can I hold out? Methinks I will buy a 15" MacBook Pro- at least it has firewire. Now if only I could get rid of the black keys, black border, and glossy screen. It looks a bit too much like my Victor AntiMicrobial Calculator at work- silver, black keys, black border and glossy display. And it didn't copy Apple- it's 2 years old.
Hmm, third quarter... They could make an absolute killing with this if it is out in time for Christmas.
i am not believing any of these reports at this time. I do believe that Apple might be investigating the notion of some kind of netbook/tablet, but until I see something official I'm not getting my hopes up.
I'm still not sure if I want to see them do some new fancy touch screen gig or just make the Air (which is pretty much a netbook to me anyway) better and cheaper.
I agree, this does sound like the Tablet.
I think Apple will release a unique interface for the tablet built around the iPhone's interface, but I'm not sure if it would use iPhone APIs or will just run regular Mac software.
I'm not convinced. The market for a 10" notebook (not going to call it a netbook) seems considerably higher than that of a tablet PC, unless Apple plans to move into the business sector with its tablet.