Sep 24, 2010 12:15 GMT  ·  By

Word on the street in Shenzhen, “the wild west of consumer product development,” according to Shanzai.com, is that Apple has actually given the final finish to its seven inch iPad, but the company is moving around multiple prototypes to create confusion with respect to the final design of the product.

The source is reporting that, by keeping its ears to the ground in Shenzhen, it was able to pick up on some mighty interesting gossip “about Apple’s forthcoming new tablets.” (note the plural).

According to the story Shanzai.com has heard, “Yes there will be a 7” tablet, yes it’s well underway in terms of product development and in fact it’s a finished product.”

It goes to add that “5 plus different designs have been floating around to help Apple protect itself from people discovering its next product look and feel but... the final design will in fact bear more resemblance to the iPhone 4 stylings than the original iPad design.”

In addition to these details, the report suggests that “new features like cameras and buttons to accommodate apps like Facetime” are likely part of the final design for what Apple has prepared in terms of iPad 2.0.

Basically, the report pretty much reaffirms current rumors about the next-generation Apple iPad.

While appearing to state the obvious, the source does a good job at re-igniting a particularly eatable rumor nowadays, by specifically mentioning the existence of “prototype” knock-offs tasked with protecting the real identity of iPad 2.0.

Many believe Apple has every reason to launch a smaller tablet equipped with dual cameras and support for Face Time video calling, including high-profile analysts and bloggers.

One of these reasons is Samsung’s recently-unveiled Galaxy Tab, which boasts a 7-inch display, and is believed to have emerged particularly because of Apple’s presumed plans to launch the tablet we’ve been ranting about in the above paragraphs.