Days before the official release of the new iPad version, reports emerged that another edition could hit the market before the end of the current year.

Citing reports recently published by a South Korean daily, Digital Trends said on Tuesday that Apple may again surprise the tech world with a new iPad, smaller this time and geared to compete with the 7-inch and 8-inch tablet computers that were previously issued on the Android platform.

The tech site reported that the information was provided by a Samsung executive to the Korea Times newspaper, seemingly supporting claims that had been floated since late last year pointing to the highly speculated stripped-down version of iPad.

Digital Trends also noted that 9to5Mac, a blog site operating from the United States, first picked up the story though DigiTimes, a Taiwanese blog site ran an earlier story about the rumour December last year.

Presumably, the new product will be called Mini iPad, as many tech experts suggested, but none is definite yet, the report stressed.

To support its claim, the Korean daily quoted the unnamed Samsung official as saying that a contract worth $11 billion was signed by Apple for the supposed purchase of touch screen displays, this time smaller than the regular-sized and million selling iPad.

"The contract is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung's faster solid state drive (SSD) storage," the Samsung official was reported by Digital Trends as saying.

The news makes sense, the report said, as Samsung is widely known to be a major supplier of components to Apple, with the Asian tech giant even maintaining a factory in the mainland United States to accommodate its contract with Apple.

Tech watchers, however, were doubtful that Apple would resort to reactionary moves, as any would view the introduction of the 'Mini iPad', especially when the company is credited for practically creating a lucrative market for the device.

Smaller screen tablets made their way to the market as rivals scramble for ways to make a dent on the new market that arguably further boosted Apple's fortunes.

IDC recently reported that by the end of 2011, Apple has sold close to 60 million iPads and this early, reports have suggested that the Cupertino, California-based firm will easily top the 1-million mark by the new iPad's launch date on March 16.

Experts see no compelling reason for Apple to mess with the in-placed formula that has helped the company to zoom to the top position this year, when it replaced Exxon as the most valuable firm in the world, with estimated market capitalisation of more than $500 billion and with share price of $500 per stock.

Also earlier, Apple chief designer Jonathan Ive has rejected suggestions that the company will actually unveil gadgets that would be deemed as inferior to its existing product lines or that of its competitors, Digital Trends wrote.