Sony, the makers of the PlayStation gaming console, are said to begin production of the PS4 towards the end of this year, with a release date scheduled for sometime in 2012, according to DigiTimes.
DigiTimes report that two Taiwan-based companies, Foxconn and Pegatron Technology, have undertaken to assembly 20 million PS4s which are due to be shipped in 2012. Both companies have previously worked on the PS3.
It’s also been reported that the new console will feature a “body movement-based control”, similar to Microsoft’s hugely popular Kinect.
If these reports are correct then the introduction of the PS4 will be a lot earlier than expected. Sony have always stated that the PS3 will have a life cycle of ten years. As the PS3 was first launched towards the end of 2006, a PS4 release date of 2012 would be four years ahead of schedule.
The same site are also reporting that we could see the iPad 3 introduced later this year.