Apple

Apple tablet watchers have completely bypassed CES 2010 in anticipation of the company's special event at the end of this month. More evidence is mounting that Apple will announce the tablet and begin selling the product during the second quarter.

According to Reuters, AVY Precision Technology begins manufacturing aluminum casings for the tablet computer body in February. Two other Taiwanese companies, Wintek and TPK Solutions, are both said to be shipping 10-inch touch screens to Apple.

With descriptions of the upcoming Apple tablet's user interface featuring words like "awesome" and "surprising" it's possible some patents filed by the company have been used in the device.

Plans for a tactile feedback virtual keyboard describe buttons and frames that would pop up when keys are displayed and retract under the surface at other times. This would make typing on an on-screen tablet keyboard feel much more like typing on a standard keyboard.

A record 7.4 million iPhones were sold in the third quarter of 2009. Analyst Brian Marshall is betting the fourth quarter will surpass everyone's expectations and predicts that Apple will see iPhone sales of 11.3 million units.

Marshall also raised his target for Apple shares to $260 each, making Broadpoint.AmTech's predictions the most optimistic on Wall Street. He believes that Apple is currently the best technology company on the planet.

Save the date because on January 26, 2010 Steve Jobs will be making the product announcement everyone has been waiting for at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. This is according to ex-Google China president Kai-Fu Lee.

Lee stated that the Apple tablet will look like a large iPhone with a 10-inch screen, 3D graphics and a price under $1000. He claims that Apple plans to manufacture 10 million of the devices in 2010.

Not long after Apple counter-sued Nokia, the stakes of the battle have increased. Nokia is now claiming that Apple has violated its patents in almost all of its consumer electronics products. The US International Trade Commission has received word that Nokia believes Apple's iPhones, iPods and computers are all abusing Nokia's intellectual property rights.

Initially, Nokia claimed that Apple had violated patents including GSM and UMTS communications standards as well as security and encryption standards in its iPhone. Apple countered the lawsuit by saying that Nokia illegally copied 13 of its own patents and named the Nokia E71 as a device that completely mimics the iPhone.