2010 iMac Boasts Touchscreen Panel Display, Paper Says

Picked up by AppleInsider and the DigiTimes, a report by the Chinese-language Commercial Times appears to hold valuable information regarding an upcoming iMac model employing a touch-screen panel display. Taiwan-based Sintek Photronic is said to manufacture the screen, whereas Quanta will allegedly assemble the shipping version of the computer. With most Apple rumors now focusing on the unconfirmed tablet PC and iPhone 4G, the news comes as a surprise, and a pleasant one at that.

We clearly needed a break from all the tablet hype, so it’s a good thing Taiwanese industry trade publication DigiTimes came across the report in question, published by the Chinese-language newspaper The Commercial Times. It says that a 22-inch iMac would be the next addition to the current 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac lineup. Currently, none of Apple’s desktop computers employs a touch-sensitive display.

Citing the Commercial Times report, DigiTimes reveals: “Apple reportedly plans to launch a 22-inch touch-enabled all-in-one PC in 2010, in addition to the current non-touch 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs [...] Apple will outsource production of the 22-inch model to Quanta, with Taiwan-based Sintek Photronic supplying the touchscreen panels, the paper noted,” the report informs.

Softpedia note
If there’s one operating system out there cut out for the job of touch-based interaction, it’s the Mac OS. Clearly, Snow Leopard would pass any touch-screen test with flying colors. However, with reports like these emerging almost every day, Apple’s annoyingly secretive nature seems quite justified. The company’s spokesman, Steve Dowling, must have said “We’re not going to comment on rumors and speculation” about a thousand times so far (I exaggerate, of course). And why should they? So that people can have even greater expectations from an inexistent product? Surely we needn’t even bother to include a tablet reference here.