9to5mac highlighted that Apple had hired David Sims, a British photographer to shoot an ad for the new iPad. It was highlighted however that the original iPads were used in the shoot and suggested that they would be swapped for a new version in post production. This is fairly weak evidence to be honest but more fuel has been added to the fire today by Digitimes.
Digitimes have reported that a selection of Taiwanese manufactures, after recently becoming certified by Apple will be shipping small quantities of components that will be used in the new iPad. They will ship these components during December leading industry analysts to expect a consumer launch in Q1 of 2011.
Appleinsider also went on record in October saying that Apple were going to become much more aggressive with their facetime product and that Apple would be introducing an Ipad no later then Q1 of 2011. This would keep the iPad aligned with Apple’s face time strategy.
The rumours as you can see are building with an early 2011 release looking ever more likely. This could be bad news for Apple competitors when the likes of Samsung and Blackberry are only just releasing their first tablet computer.
The Blackberry Playbook is getting a large amount of attention especially from the business market due to it’s server integration and encryption technology, however they clearly see Apple’s current iPad as their biggest contender. A video released this week from Blackberry showcasing the Playbook’s web browser is directly compared to that of the iPad.
As the Playbook is due for launch during Q2 of 2011 Blackberry may have found that they were targeting the wrong product if the iPad 2 is released a few months before the Playbook.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and keep checking the mobiles.co.uk blog for any new developments.
View the Original article
