Sources claim that an "unusually-large" shipment of 188 containers has arrived in North America from Apple's partners in China, complete with shipping manifests. This wouldn't be so strange had customs declarations not said the contents of the containers were "Electric Computers." 3G iPhone? Mac tablet?

67 of the containers are going to Canada (Vancouver, BC), ImportGenuis is reporting, while Apple's dubbing of the contents makes perfect sense: 1 - because the iPhone's telephony capabilities have long been forgotten, and 2 - in order to avoid the hype terms like "cellphone" or "telephone" would create.

"They have never before reported this product on their customs declarations," says Ryan Petersen of ImportGenius. "The fact that they are importing millions of units, combined with dwindling stocks of the first generation of iPhones, clearly supports the Citi analysts predictions," which said Apple would announce the new iPhone model at WWDC '08 in San Francisco, on June 9.

Apple's usual shipment notes, had the hardware been regular computers, would have stated "desktop computers." The fact that custom notes now say that "electric computers" are shipping in, the aforementioned source suggests, means a new product is in order for future announcement, "rather than a simple renaming for their Customs declarations."

Bill of Lading # HLCUSHA0803FTFR8, Apple Inc's most recent shipment of the new products, arrived at the port of New York on the Vessel NYK Delphinus on May 17, the same source reveals. That particular shipment contained a total of 504 cartons "of the vaguely described 'electric computer'," weighing in at over 7 tons (7,140 kg, to be more precise).

Apple has been rumored to be working on a tablet Mac for years but, according to Jason D. O'Grady blogging for ZDNet, a little "birdy" said Apple's Mac-running tablet was real. But, with the new iPhone model due to be unveiled at Apple's WWDC '08 (this much everyone knows for sure), Apple is likely to be calling the latter "electric."