Is Apple Going to Launch a Tablet With a Webcam?

"Oui." That's what Stéphane Richard—number two at France Telécom/Orange—answered to French journalist Jean Pierre Elkabbach on radio Europe 1, when asked about the imminent launch of the Apple tablet. He talked about a built-in web cam too:

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: According to Le Point, your partner Apple will launch a Tablet...

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: ...with a webcam...

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: ...would Orange users benefit from this?

Stéphane Richard: Sure! They are going to benefit from the web cam, they are going to be able to, in effect, transmit images in real time. We are going to modernize, in essence, the video phone that we knew a few years ago... the size of the resolution, and the quality of the resolution will be better, and it will be available to all in France.

Jump to 6:15 to listen to it (in French):

L'interview politique de Jean-Pierre Elkabbach
by Europe1fr

Apple reps spotted pushing tablets to LA doctors

Here’s a new angle in the “how the tablet will redefine computing” rumor thread that’s grown up around Apple’s long-rumored iSlate, Mac tablet or iPod touch on steroids if you prefer.

Quoting Jason Wilk — apparently the same one who spawned last year’s spurious Apple Stores ban Facebook story — VentureBeat says that Apple representatives have been spending time with doctors at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to convince them to give Apple’s tablet a try.

Wilk says that “My Dad plays golf with Cedars-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks.”

So, a blatant self promotor with a poor rumor track record says that his dad told him some guys told him that some guys from Apple have been around promoting a phantom product?

Well, computer companies have been promoting tablet usage (without much success) in hospitals and Apple would be wise to cover their bases, something the company has been doing with publishers both in the US and Australia.

So, given that medicine is a natural for tablet computers and that Cedars-Sinai is an internationally known hospital, it makes perfect sense for Apple to be there visiting. That doesn’t make it so, just plausible if not likely…

What’s your take?

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DIY Touchscreen Analysis from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo.