This is significant for two reasons: first, capacitive touchscreens are much, much more finger-friendly than their resistive counterparts, and could help improve the good-but-not-great Nokia touchscreen experience; and second, capacitive touchscreens are generally only popular in cultures with a Latin alphabet, i.e. not Asia, where stylus-dependent handwriting recognition is vital for the success of a touch phone. In other words, this theoretical phone has a good chance of making its way to our shores.

Keep in mind, though, that this is a Digitimes report on a Wintek order, meaning it probably came from the same source that promised an Apple netbook/tablet by Q3. Hence, salt. [Digitimes]

Expected in June, the models are said to line up as follows: a 2.75G (which Slashgear interprets as EDGE) version, an upgraded 3G version and a China-oriented model, possibly to support a Chinese CDMA carrier. The mention of EDGE would seem to indicate that one of these models will be a budget version, but not necessarily a smaller one—the report makes sure to say that there won't be an iPhone Nano. It goes on to say that component suppliers are reporting a first run of four million for the combined handsets, which is a lot, but not out of the question.

The obvious surprise here, though, is that EDGE phone. To revert to a waning network standard a full year after consciously switching from it doesn't seem very Apple. That said, a fully subsidized iPhone paired with a cheaper data plan could tap an entirely new market for the company, drawing millions more users to the lucrative App Store/iTunes fold. Strange, yeah, but this shouldn't be ruled out—the Commercial Times has a solid record on Apple hardware rumors. [Commercial Times via Slashphone]

The story is more or less the same: Apple is allegedly planning a touchscreen netbook for release as early as H2 of this year. As chum, this new report throws out a display size figure of "between 9.7-inches and 10-inches," again pointing to Wintek as the display supplier and Quanta as the device manufacturer. Actually, the most interesting part of this report is what remained unsaid, at least by the parties involved:

Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for Apple in Asia, declined to comment Tuesday. Wintek spokeswoman Susie Lee and Quanta Computer investor relations officer Carol Hsu declined to comment.

Obviously this isn't proof of anything, but it is a rich—and uniformly held—silence.

Aside from lending the original rumor a bit more credibility, the new report doesn't do anything to address the most pressing questions: what form-factor, and how much? I don't suspect we'll get answers to these questions until the existence of the "it" is a bit more certain, which, judging by the claimed shipping target, could be a while. [DJW via CNET Asia]

Their information comes from Wintek, the company slated to provide the touch panels for the device—the netbook itself will be made by Quanta Computer.

So can the rumors be believed? The Commercial Times did spill the beans on the original iPhone. But they've been wrong about plenty of other stuff in their time, too.

Also, who is saying that Apple is creating a "netbook" by general standards? Would such a device look anything like Asus' or MSI's netbooks, especially if it's to feature a touchscreen? [DigiTimes]