HTC Puccini Mass Production In June Tip Sources

HTC's rumored 10-inch Puccini tablet will apparently begin volume production in June 2011, according to the latest rumors, fitting in with suggestions that the originally expected launch date in the first half of this year has likely slipped to July or later. DigiTimes' sources claim the HTC Puccini will have a touchscreen that responds to both resistive and capacitive touch, along with a "touch pen" that can "work on specified software and areas."

That's a little confusing, especially the mention of resistive touchscreen technology. If the Puccini is anything like the HTC Flyer we reviewed recently then the "specified software" is HTC's custom Notes app – which can synchronize handwritten notes with Evernote online – and a pen menu that can be used to annotate screenshots. There's also a pen-enabled PDF reader, handy for signing digital documents rather than printing and faxing them.

However, the Flyer pairs an active N-Trig digitizer (for the stylus) and a capacitive touchscreen (for regular finger control) with no resistive technology involved whatsoever. We've seen next-gen resistive screens that can respond to multitouch input, so it's possible HTC could be using one of those with the Puccini, or alternatively this could be a mix-up with the supply chain sources and the resistive tip a false lead.

Wintek and AU Optronics are the panel suppliers, and the Puccini will apparently run Qualcomm's 1.5GHz MSM8660 processor and Android 3.0.1. Earlier leaks have suggested it will be offered in some SKUs with AT&T LTE support; the carrier announced yesterday its first five LTE markets which will go live this summer.