New iPads on the horizon - report

San Francisco - Apple is to announce two new iPad tablet computers in January, according to a report on Thursday by Digitimes, a Taiwan-based electronics publication.

Citing sources in Apple's supply chain, the report said that the new versions would both feature 9.7 inch screens, the same size as the current iPad2, but that resolution would be increased to 1 536 x 2 048 pixels. The new iPads will run on Apple's quad-core A6 chips, as opposed to the dual core A5 chips in the iPad 2.

The report did not detail many differences between the two new iPads, apart from one coming with an 8-megapixel camera and the other with a 5-megapixel lens.

The new models will not replace the iPad2, which will stay on the market to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire. If Apple follows its successful iPhone strategy, the new models will sell for the price of the model they are replacing, while the old model will see a significant price reduction.

Apple will announce the new iPads at the MacWorld and iWorld conference on January 26, the report said.