Orange has hinted it may be about to offer subsidised 3G iPads in return for a monthly data contract.
‘Orange UK will offer new purchase options for iPad users, including more affordable prices when purchased with a data service plan for iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G models in the coming months,’ the company said in a statement. It declined to provide any further information.
London freesheet City AM claimed the tablet would be available before Christmas for just £200 (£170 ex VAT), £329 than the current asking price for a 16GB iPad 3G. That kind of reduction is likely to require a contract of at least 18 months.
Subsidised iPads could go on sale just in time for the unveiling of a newspaper written exclusively for the Apple device. The Guardian reported that Rupert Murdoch’s News International, publisher of The Times and The Sun, was looking to combine ‘tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence’ in The Daily, a digital ‘newspaper’ that will be delivered to iPads via a new subscription payments method in the App Store.
Daring Fireball commentator John Gruber added that it could be launched at an event next month, with Murdoch joining Apple CEO Steve Jobs on stage.
Jobs is likely to take the stage early next year to unveil ‘iPad 2’, assuming Apple adopts its the same yearly product cycle for its tablet as those for the iPhone and iPods.
Taiwan tech website Digitimes reports that Apple has started placing orders with circuit board suppliers, who will start shipping boards next month.
