Yes that’s right, that Apple tablet you and I have been waiting on the past four years will only have to wait just a little bit longer.  If our source is good (and I’m told he or she is) we can all expect an early 2010 delivery of the tablet of our dreams (or so we’ve been hoping).

Engadget have learned from DigiTimes, they have learned that Foxconn have the manufacturing rights for the Apple Tablet PC and that they will release the device in Q1 2010. Foxconn says that they have set an initial shipment of 300,000 to 400,000 per quarter.

This figure seems a little modest, Apple shift around 2.6 million Macs per quarter, which should give an indication to how many Tablet PCs units they will shift. According to DigiTime the iTablet will come with a 10.6-inch touchscreen, which we mentioned above could have the multitouch system.

Apparently, Steve Jobs has been the major hold up with the realization of this device.  That’s both a good thing and a bad thing.  Bad because there are far too many people who wanted to buy this mythical device years ago already, and a good thing because you know Steve only approves the best of the best.  I wouldn’t expect Jobs to allow any but the most amazing tablet device out of the door at Apple, especially with such a long running rumor surrounding said device.

And it seems that Steve is finally happy.  I like it when Steve’s happy, because when Steve’s happy, we’re all happy…with the possible exception of your wallet.  Though the rumored price point is somewhere between a 32GB iPhone and a low end MacBook.  I’m personally guessing around $600 or $700.  I wouldn’t expect the full specs on this thing to be available or even accurate, but you can expect something with a 10 inch screen and supposedly 3G data.  Think of a device that looks like a super sized iPod touch (like the artist’s rendition above).  And I also wouldn’t be surprised to find not an Intel processor, but one of those in-house designed chips we talked about a while back.

Personally, I believe most of this rumor.  Apple would be insane to never release a product that so many consumers want blindly.  I sincerely hope they don’t choose to require a 3G data plan with this device.  There are rumors circulating that it would be offered only through Verizon, effectively requiring many Apple users to have monthly plans with both AT&T and Verizon.  Bad, bad, bad, idea.  How about we just keep it as a regular tablet-like device and we can just find WiFi for it, or buy our own 3G data plans to use with it if we choose. Time will tell, but we’re getting sick of waiting.  Are you?