Is Apple about to use cheaper components in the upcoming iPad 3, to help stay ahead in the tablet market? If this is true Apple’s tablet strategy will surely keep them competitive with other Tablet makers.

A new report via DigiTimes earlier on today says that Taiwan-based IC design houses Novatek Microelectronics, Capella Microsystems (Taiwan), Richtek Technology and Integrated Memory Logic (iML) have apparently entered the iPad 3 supply chain.

If the above is true then the above companies would supply Apple with LCD driver, integrated power management, ambient light sensors and programmable gamma/Vcom buffer solutions, does this actually mean that Apple will be willing to ship various integrated circuit modules from Taiwan-based IC design houses in the hope of reducing the material costs of the iPad 3.

We would also love to know if this is the case, is it all down to the Tablet competiveness. Many rivals are launching tablets this year and Apple needs to be on guard, is this there way of being the forefront to stay on top of the game.

9to5Mac mentions a few details they got via iSuppli, apparently the Apple iPad 2 costs for materials was $323.25 for the 32GB CDMA version, which is around $3.35 more for the GSM version, Apple apparently pays $127 for one touch screen panel, and when you put this up against the estimated $95 for the first iPad you can see a clear difference.

Do you really think Apple would use cheap components to be competitive with other tablet suppliers? The amount of money Apple spends each year on components, software, new technology etc, we cannot see this happening. Apple has always strived on bringing awesome power and quality, so would they really risk using cheaper components.

We have not heard nothing via Apple so we will take this on the chin for now and wait for an official announcement, now of the companies named above have made any confirmation that this is true either.

So we will sit back and wait for official confirmation, on the meantime please do stay here on PhonesReview because as soon as any iPad 3 news comes by our way we will notify you. Please be patient, we will update soon.

Whilst you wait for more Apple iPad 3 news please do comment below, we would love to read your thoughts on this one. Would Apple really take the cheaper component corner to stay comptetitive?