NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 2 (Reuters Life!) – Spotted at
Rupert Murdoch’s splashy digital newspaper launch on Wednesday:
a prototype of Apple’s newest iPad.
A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working
model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top
edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the
debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York on
Wednesday.
A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its
existence, adding that the final release model could have other
features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.
The next version of Apple’s popular tablet computer is
expected to be announced in the next few months.
Manufacturing sources have said it will sport two cameras
— one in the front and one in the back — enabling users to
make video calls.
News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch along with Apple
executive Eddy Cue unveiled the Daily, a digital newspaper
created from scratch for the iPad at a press conference in New
York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim museum.
The Daily is Apple’s first foray into subscription sales
through its iTunes store after having spent a year in talks
with publishers with little progress.
The iPad was released in April 2010 and became one the
hottest gadgets of the year.
The company sold 14.8 million iPads in 2010, and could
double that this year, analysts estimated.
The 10-inch touchscreen device proved to be hugely popular
as a media consumption device, good for games, video and Web
browsing.
The iPad, which starts at $500, added more than $8 billion
in sales for Apple last year and helped touch off a
tablet-mania that is sweeping the technology business.
Nearly all of Apple’s rivals are working on tablets, with
dozens of models expected to hit the market this year,
providing the iPad with its first real competition.
Companies such as Samsung Electronics, Dell,
Hewlett-Packard and Acer Inc are attacking the tablet market,
with global sales expected to surge to more than 50 million
units in 2011.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba and Brendan McDermid in New York,
and Gabriel Madway in San Francisco. Editing by Kenneth Li and
Robert MacMillan)