News of a slimmer iPad with improved battery life that will be launched by the end of summer emerged and immediately caused frenzy in the tech world.

According to a Chinese newspaper bearing the name Apple Daily, Apple is set to release the latest iPad before the summer ends and this is not even the rumored iPad mini. The new 10-inch iPad is speculated to sport thinner design, better screen and improved battery life.

Reports say that the screens will feature indium gallium zinc oxide panel technology. This seems possible since Apple included Sharp in its line of suppliers for screen panels. Currently, 60 to 70 percent of screen panels are supplied by Samsung, with the rest shared by LG Display and Sharp.

Apple's Chinese components manufacturer Foxconn Electronics has recently made investments in Sharp, which is expected to see its proportion rise to 50 percent for the upgraded iPad.

One of the problems of iPad is its battery life that quickly runs out due to the user of various apps. Thus, the news of improved battery life is good for iPad users.

If there is truth to this rumor, the new iPad would probably be released along with the new iPhone in the fall. It is enough to ripple through the component supply chain and stir up the many tablet PC OEMs and vendors trying to emulate Apple's success with me-too products of their own design.

This is quite unbelievable since iPad 3 has been on the market for months. In order to fully maximize the profits of a product, the company should observe how it would fare in the market for at least a year.

It could be that Apple felt threatened with the release of Google's Nexus 7, which is a quad-core Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet with a ridiculously low price tag of $199. The device is expected to shake the tablet market.

Amazon Kindle Fire 2 which will reportedly boast more features over its predecessor but a smaller price tag will be released later this year.

Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone 5 this fall packed with new features and equipped with the new iOS 6.

iPad holds 62 percent of the Australian tablet market. However, it faces injunction in Australia with its latest iPad due to misleading advertisement on the 4G/LTE feature of iPad 3.

The Cupertino-based company did not release confirmation or statement about the rumor.

ALSO READ: Microsoft Surface vs. iPad 3 vs. Google Nexus Tablet: Software Companies Want Pieces of iPad Success

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