iPhone Savior: Apple Engineers Ramp Up Tablet Trips To China

A fresh flurry of reports point to Apple engineers making numerous trips to manufacturing plants in China lately, said to be ramping up production on their long-rumored tablet device. The activity confirms that the company is still racing towards a first quarter 2010 launch of its new 3G-enabled, multi-touch device.

"Indeed, a source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the internet. There's even a few weeks scheduled during the Christmas holiday season." Source - The Business Insider

It's expected that Foxconn, a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer is Apple's likely choice to produce the 10-inch touchscreen tablet with an initial production of 300,000 to 400,000 devices packaged to sell. Foxconn has partnered with Apple on numerous products including iPhone.

Reports also indicate that Appe has been in direct talks with Australian media companies in an ongoing effort to court major newspaper and magazine publishers, discussing the launch of a new app for the tablet that would allow the agencies to deliver their content in a digital form and charge for it. It's believed that Apple intends their tablet device to serve as web browser, e-reader and larger format media player.

"Apple has sent specifications of the device to Australian media companies in an effort to sound out whether they would be interested in delivering their content to the tablet." Source - The Sydney Morning Herald

Back in August, we reported that Apple took over "Jax At The Tracks" diner just outside of lake Tahoe, California for the better part of a day, filming a super-secret Apple TV commercial for what was said to be an unreleased "mystery product". The spot which was filmed under a shroud of secrecy has yet to surface.