In the world’s worst kept secret, Steve Jobs is tipped to unveil the Apple Tablet Next Month, an ex-Google Exec says. Rumoured to be called the iSlate, it will come with 3D graphics and a price tag below US$1000, according to former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee (who has now lost his tongue on the topic of Apple since being bombarded with journalists and their questions).
The comments from Lee, originally published on his Chinese blog and who worked for Apple over a decade ago and left Google this year, add to the circulating rumours of a possible ultrathin Apple tablet combining e-reader and Web-surfing functions. Speculation about the device has redoubled since a blog post by the Financial Times last week cited unnamed sources saying Apple is expected to make a major product announcement at an event in San Francisco on Jan. 26.
According to Lee, the new device will weigh less than half as much as a MacBook Air and he also cited speculation that Apple could team up with U.S. network operators to lower the price of the tablet. Operators already widely use a similar model for mobile phones including the iPhone, in which the buyer gets a discounted device in exchange for signing a mobile service contract. He says that Apple expects to ship 10 million units in the first year.
