Apple have placed orders with manufacturers like LG, Samsung and Chimei Innolux for 9.7-inch iPad displays for sales in 2011. LG take the lead with a request for 35 million, with Samsung and Chimei Innolux splitting the remaining 30 million.

To put this into perspective, Apple have had a very successful year of iPad sales in 2010 - but only 16.75 million screens were made. Obviously a jump to 65 million is a large leap of faith.

Apple are very confident in the 9.7-inch format and Steve Jobs himself has even said "We think the 7 inch tablets will be dead on arrival, and manufacturers will realize they're too small and abandon them next year. They'll then increase the size, abandoning the customers and developers who bought into the smaller format."

Do Apple know something we don't? Is iPad 2 going to kick the rest of the tablets squarely in the nuts and start taking names? I'm betting on a yes.