Reports: Second-Generation Apple iPad To Appear Early Next Year

Market analyst Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. told Computerworld on Monday that he expects Apple to launch iPad 2 sometime in April, and that the company will refresh the iPad annually as it does with the iPhone.

Last week, Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair wrote in a research note, according to Digital Daily , that Apple's next tablet will be based on one of Qualcomm’s multimode CDMA-GSM chips, allowing it to work on global wireless networks.

The so-called “World iPad” could sell up to 48 million units next year based on recent Qualcomm channel checks, he said. Apple's second-generation tablet device will feature a front-facing camera and design modifications, with production set to begin in January and a product launch scheduled in February or March, according to Blair's note.

“Apple is going to be ratcheting down production of the existing 3G iPad over the next two months in anticipation of ramping up a new World iPad that is powered by Qualcomm and will run on both GSM and CDMA based networks around the world,” Blair wrote.

On Nov. 6, Blair wrote in the research note that, according to his supply chain checks, Apple expects to produce 45 to 48 million iPad units next year, far more than in any previous forecast.

Digitimes reported on Monday that, according to industry sources, the iPad 2 will negatively affect sales of tablets from other vendors, a number of which are expected to go to market in the first quarter of 2011.

According to Digitimes, expectations for those tablets could outpace current consumer demand, which could in turn decline sharply in Q3 of 2011 following robust sales in Q2.

"Sources noted that whether tablet PCs will achieve such performance still remains questionable and an over-optimistic attitude may cause players to suffer from overstocked inventories, as happened with netbooks," the Digitmes report said.

With the upcoming launch of Intel's Oak Trail, processors and Google's tablet-specific Android OS, as well as the ongoing development of the MeeGo platform for mobile devices, competition in the tablet space is intensifying.