San Francisco (dpa) - Apple is working with its suppliers in Asia
to start production of the next generation iPad in October and will
launch the new tablet computers early next year, the Wall Street
Journal reported Monday.
The report said that the iPad 3 is expected to feature a high
resolution display and that Apple had already ordered components for
1.5 million units in the fourth quarter.
"Suppliers will ramp up production and try to improve the yield
rate for the new iPad in the fourth quarter before its official
launch in early 2012," said a person at an unnamed supplier,
according to the paper.
Like many high tech companies Apple does not manufacture its own
devices, farming out the job to manufacturing specialists primarily
in Taiwan and China.
Apple is the overwhelming leader of the tablet computer market,
selling 9.3 million units in its fiscal third quarter and controlling
over 80 percent of the market.
Competition from tablets running on Google's Android operating
system however is heating up with new models offered by Samsung,
Motorola, Acer and others, and the swift introduction of the iPad 3
is designed to keep Apple ahead of its rivals.
