Apple Rumored to Overhaul All Product Lines in 2012

Rumors have been making the rounds on tech blogs, indicating a strong feeling in the tech market that Apple Inc. is set to come up with its iPhone 5 and iPad 3 sometime next year.

A recent report on Taiwan-based Web site, Digitimes, suggests Apple will come with at least five new products in 2012. According to the report, the tech giant is planning to completely overhaul its product lineups, including the iPhone, the iMac, the iPad and the MacBook Air.

The Web site quotes sources in the upstream supply chain, who expect that Apple will finalize order volumes for key components required for the next-generation iPad in December. The inventory of the components will be enough for the production of as many as 2 million units by the end of 2011.

Sources revealed that internally Apple does not view the new iPad product as iPad 3, but rather an upgraded iPad 2 and the real iPad 3 will not be launched until the third quarter of 2012 at the earliest, said the Digitimes report.

Apple has asked makers in the supply chain to develop flat panel modules and LED light bars for two iPad prototypes, codenamed J1 and J2, the sources revealed.