February has already been cited as a possible launch month for iPad's successor, following DigiTimes' claims back in November that Apple was busy ramping up suppliers.

Now commentators have gone even further, putting what amounts to a 100 day countdown on the tablet's launch.

The narrowing of the release window is due to further claims from DigiTimes that Foxconn has been notified of the tablet's due date.

As a result, the firm is currently readying somewhere between 400,000 and 600,000 units ready for day one.

Tablet tales

The new tablet – believed to ship with a front facing camera amongst other improvements – would, based on the site's calculations, therefore ship to retail at some point in February or March.

Despite this seemingly close launch, however, there's been little letup in the manufacture of the original iPad based on DigiTimes' numbers.

Sources have told the site that Foxconn shipped around six million iPads in Q3 2010.

That means there are still 1.8 million units of inventory left for the current quarter, with Apple set to place an order for a further 1.6-1.8 million original iPad units in January, before finally reducing the number the following month.

[source: DigiTimes]