Never officially acknowledged by Apple, the company's plans to release a tablet pc are widely accepted among developers and analysts.
One such analyst is Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner who released a research note claiming that information from Apple's supply chain partners indicates that manufacturing for an Apple tablet is ramping up and that the product could be ready in March or April.
"Until the project sees the light of day, it's never a foregone conclusion," Walter Luh, co-founder of Ansca Mobile, maker of the Corona development system for iPhone apps commented. "Steve Jobs demands perfection and if he's not happy with it, it's not going to ship." Walter has worked for both Apple and Adobe.
There is no info about the rumored device yet, but most analysts and developers expect it to be something akin to a MacBook Air without its keyboard or a large form-factor iPod. It is also expected that it will be able to run iPhone's programs out of the box.
"Lots of people have tried to do tablets in the past," said Luh. "Apple always puts a unique twist on things so I think it will be very popular."
