Apple Rumor: Tablet to Debut in Feb. 2010

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple's(AAPL) eagerly anticipated Tablet may make its debut in February 2010, according to the Taiwan Economic News Web site, which says that a number of Taiwanese firms are supplying components for the device.

DynaPack International Technology will supply up to 300,000 long-life battery packs a month for the Tablets, and Wanshih Electronic will provide mini coaxial cables, according to the Web site. Taiwan-based Mag Layers Scientific-Technics and Wintek will provide power chokes and touch panels, respectively, it said.

Notable by its absence from Apple's recent Keynote event in San Francisco, the Tablet was one of the summer's most-discussed technologies. The blogosphere has been rife with rumors about possible features although Apple, true-to-form, is playing its cards close to its chest.

Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment on this article from TheStreet, although the Tablet is widely expected to appear sometime in the first half of 2010.

Taiwan Economic News also says that the device will be priced between $799 and $999.

Despite Steve Jobs' recent headline-grabbing return to Apple, the company's San Francisco event was light on new products, shifting the spotlight back onto the mysterious Tablet.

Variously described as a giant iPhone, iPod Touch, or even an e-book reader, the device has a lot riding on it. The Tablet is expected to maintain Apple's reputation for cutting-edge yet aesthetically pleasing technology. However, the tablet-device space has already proved problematic for the likes of Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and Toshiba, so Apple will need to carefully position the device.

Shares of Apple, which competes with H-P, Dell(DELL) and Microsoft(MSFT) in personal computers, rose $1.47, or 0.85%, to $175.19 Tuesday, outpacing the modest advance in tech stocks that saw the Nasdaq rise 0.51%.

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