Next Apple iPad to start production this summer

Taiwanese original design manufacturer (ODM) is one of three or four companies that put together notebooks and now tablets for multinationals.

And according to Taiwanese wire Digitimes, Compal is responding positively to the changes in the device market. The same wire reported yesterday that the next iPad, a 9.7-inch device with a thinner and lighter profile, will start in July of this year, with LG Display and Sharp winning out on the display front.

A few years ago, Compal’s business was making notebooks and netbooks, pure and simple.  But, the wire reports, although notebooks were the bread and butter for ODMs, Compal shipped 3.8 million notebooks and 400,000 tablets in the month of March.  That’s a 40 percent rise in shipments, month on month.

The report indicates that most of the notebook growth came from an order from Dell, for business machines.

And Compal began shipping tablets to Acer in the first quarter of this year and ship Amazon seven inch tablets in Q3 2013.  Acer has already committed to putting its weight behind the burgeoning tablet market.

The same wire reports that the next iPad, a 9.7-inch device with a thinner and lighter profile, will start in July of this year, with LG Display and Sharp winning out on the display front.