A subcontractor of Taiwanese manufacturer Inventec Corp has claimed HP is preparing to launch a smaller TouchPad tablet later this summer.

Coupled with a report that HP has placed an order for 450,000 tablets a month from the firm, the new 7 inch variant would come in below the 9.8 inch TouchPad due to go on sale this July.

Two for TouchPad?

The unnamed source claims Inventec has won the contract to manufacture the new device - expected to go on sale as early as August - alongside the existing TouchPad.

Inventec is already HP's largest notebook manufacturer, but it's not known just what proportion of the company's tablet output the firm will produce.

However, an insider has told Taiwan Economic News that Inventec will supply a total of 3 million tablets for HP before the end of the year – a figure now believed to comprise of both models.

[source: BGR]