Computing

The China Times is now reporting that the endlessly-rumoured, Apple tablet isn’t just coming someday—a fair bet—it’s coming soon. It’ll land in October, to be exact, when we should expect to pay around $US800 for it.

The story of the Apple tablet has been one of hearsay and gossip from the start, and this report, despite coming from a respectable newspaper, is no different. Translation courtesy of the MacRumors forums, and our polygot tipster:

Taiwan’s high-tech supply chain companies said Apple will debut its first netbook in October; Apple will pose itself to tackle the Christmas shopping season. Three corporations – Foxconn, Wintek, Dynapack have received direct orders from Apple.

To anyone who’s been following this story, this will sound familiar: Wintek was the company previously said to have supplied a bunch of touchscreen panels to Apple for use in a tablet—a narrative that lost a little steam after a no-show at WWDC. But bearing a resemblance to previous rumours could mean two things: either the China Times has been able to independently confirm something true, lending it credence; or they—or their sources—are simply echoing rumours. The pricing rumour is subject to the same suspicions:

Because Apple will adopt touch screen technology on its netbooks, Apple will not target low-end consumers, avoiding direct competition with Acer, Asus, as well as their less-than-500-dollars netbooks. Apple’s netbook (or a “tablet” as many call it,) will probably be sold at around $US800 USD each.

Even assuming this is true, it’s strictly a hardware rumour, and doesn’t answer one of the most important questions regarding the tablet: what the hell kind of OS will this thing run? Two takes. [Macrumors--Thanks, puffnstuff!]