• Apple Insider et al., Wednesday, December 9, 2009 2:21 PM

Two new reports suggest that consumers can plan on purchasing their precious Apple tablets by next spring. Apple will begin its manufacturing "ramp" on the tablet product in February, which or early April, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner writes in a research note out Wednesday. Reiner is also confident that the highly-anticipated device's display will be 10.1-inches long, and based on LCD technology -- not OLED technology as previously thought.

Corroborating Reiner's claims, Vijay Rakesh at ThinkEquity is saying checks of Apple's supply chain suggest that company is on track to ship a tablet with 64 gigabytes of flash memory capacity by March. He expects Apple to build between 1 million and 3 million units initially, and that it expects to build 8 million to 10 million during the 2010 calendar year.

Meanwhile, Reiner reports Apple has been reaching out to book publishers with what he calls a "very attractive proposal for distributing their books." To be exact, the revenue split on the table is said to 30% for Apple, 70% for the publisher, while Apple won't request exclusivity.

"That's better, from the publisher's point of view, than the split Reiner thinks Amazon gives publishers on the Kindle, 50-50 in most cases, and 30-70 if its a Kindle exclusive," writes blog.

Amazon, Reiner says, has "disgruntled the publishing industry," with the Kindle, by demanding exclusivity, not allowing advertising, and demanding too much of a revenue cut. That makes it vulnerable to the tablet.

"Two other things Apple can offer," according to The Business Insider. "Ads in magazines, which Kindle doesn't allow, and separate digital storefronts, which Kindle doesn't allow."

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