Apple, USA and other tablets suppliers like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, who have made their iPad, Kindle Fire & Nook tablets, respectively, very successful are sourcing the tablets from Taiwan/China under OEM arrangements.
According to a Taiwanese website, the next generation iPads are expected to be available in the next 3-4 months as makers in the supply chain have started delivering parts and components for the new tablets to OEM contractors while reducing those prepared for iPad 2, according to their sources in the supply chain. OEM production of iPad 2 will remain high at 14-15 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 but decline to 4-5 million units in the first quarter of 2012, paving the way for the launch of the new iPads.
According to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report, Foxconn Electronics will begin to produce the next-generation iPads in January for delivery to Apple Inc. in February 2012. They will be producing around 10 million new iPads in the first quarter.
Other speculation about the next version of iPad include reports that it will be slightly thicker to accommodate its higher-resolution screen, and that Apple may introduce a cheaper, possibly smaller “iPad mini” to the product line.
These are just speculations and unconfirmed news but one thing is clear that Apple is on the verge of bringing out next version of iPad 3 and this will be most probably in late February or early March. Apple would not like to spoil its sale of current version of iPad in this holiday season by bringing in next version so early as sales of iPad products totaled 25.06 million in the first three quarters of 2011 and are likely to reach 40 million units by the end of 2011.
