Apple fans are breathing even harder these days, in anticipation of their guru computer company entering the wildly popular tablet computer space.

For those who aren’t keeping up on this niche of the industry, tablets (to steal from Wikipedia’s definition) is “a laptop or slate-shaped mobile computer equipped with a touchscreen or graphic tablet/screen hybrid  to operate the computer with a stylus or digital pen, or a fingertip, instead of a keyboard or mouse.

These types of laptops are small, lightweight and portable — great for surfing the Web while lounging on a couch or sitting in an airport.

Apple’s been inching toward a tablet with its Mac Air and iPhone capabilities, and we can probably expect features of both to merge in the tablet that’s rumored to be on its way.

Here’s what the rumor mill says so far:

• The Apple tablet will have  7 – 9 inch screen– maybe 10 inches.
• Price point: somewhere between $500 and $1,000
• Launch date has been pushed from this Fall to early next year. Seems significant resources from the iPod and iPhone team have been dedicated to the project.
• The operating system: probably based on the iPhone OS.

The big question yet to be settled is about chip processing power. The company Macbook Air is a dual core machine and it’s pretty darned slim. But it’s also pricey. And that could put Apple’s tablet out of reach for many consumers.

Tags: Apple, price, processing, rumor, size, tablet