Yair Reiner, an analyst for Oppenheimer, has lit some incense, drained his tea-cup and stared deep into the pattern of the remaining leaves. The fates have thus communicated to him the following “fact”: Apple will ship a 10.1-inch touch-screen tablet in spring 2010.
The average reader of the average gadget-blog knows more about the real workings of the tech world than even the best of analysts (or “prophets” as I prefer to call them). But we shall humor Uncle Yair, and present here his rock-solid inferences, based on the study not of actual tea-leaves, but of his supply-chain contacts.
The Jesus-tablet will use an LTPS (Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) LCD like that of the iPhone instead of a pricier OLED display, and if Apple wants to have enough in stock to meet demand (at a projected manufacturing speed of a million units per month) then a launch date in March or April is likely.
The price? The same as a MacBook with a full keyboard, or $1,000. This would be the perfect price for Apple to charge if it didn’t want to sell any.
Reiner goes on to speculate that book publishers, “disgruntled by Amazon’s terms” which give the publisher just 70% of revenue on an exclusive deal, prefer the numbers offered by Apple. And what is this sweet, sweet deal from Apple? An “App Store-type 30/70 split.” Can you spot the difference? Me either.
By now, we’re pretty sure that we’ll see an Apple tablet soon, probably in the first half of the year (spring for tablets, summer for iPhones, autumn for iPods, and Macs when they are ready). We’re also sure that until it is actually announced by Apple, every week will bring further groping guesses about this tech-unicorn, in increasingly desperate attempts to drum up publicity.
Apple tablet set for spring launch? [Fortune]
Tablet mockup: Sergio Cabral
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