Mobile News: iPad 2 Next Month?; Xoom / Flash; Windows 8 Tablets

—iPad 2: Sightings and hints of Apple’s next-generation iPad have been cropping up here, there and everywhere in the past several weeks. Today we got one more indirect clue: stock of the current crop of devices is, apparently, running out. 9to5 Mac is taking this as a sign that a new iPad could be coming as soon as next month. In Europe, it notes, major reseller Carphone Warehouse has run out of 64 GB WiFi model, and all 3G models; while operators like T-Mobile and Orange have reduced the price on their 16 GB 3G/WiFi devices by half, to £99.99, for those taking them with two-year 3G contracts. Real shortages/stock shifting or supply issues and two operators keen to drive sales after a lacklustre start to their subsidised iPad push? We’ll only know for sure next month. In the meantime, real fans can already start picking out their favorite color of case (pictured).

—Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Xoom: On the back of the latest teaser ad for the Xoom, a 15-second “grab it and it grabs you” clip (embedded below) that continues the sci-fi, brave new world theme introduced in the Xoom effort for the Super Bowl, it now looks like the tablet, due to launch this Thursday and priced at $800, will not come with Flash support until this spring. Up to now, Android tablet makers have been touting Flash support as a key differentiator against the iPad. 

—Windows 8: Tablets running Windows 7 have never really taken off, with reports criticising their battery life and touch interface as inferior to those of the iPad and Android-based devices. Now there are reports that Windows 8 tablets, which will aim to fix these issues, might be out as early as the end of this year. A research note from Morgan Stanley says that a tablet running Windows 8 on an ARM-based chipset could be out by the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. Apparently Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has put 1,000 engineers to on the project to make sure it runs smoothly.

Dell's 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup has been leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running WindWindows 8

Wrigley, Hancock, Millennium, Gallo, Sterling, Rosemount, Silver Oak, Peju and Opus One. What are we rattling off? Oh, just the list of codenames from one of the largest leaks we've ever seen out of Dell.WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company's plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here's the full rundown.

Smartphones:

• Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some "additional features and enhancements" which we're pretty sure we can name.

• Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as "Windows Phone 7 Next Gen," and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.

• By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell's Hancock will scoop it onto a a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.

• Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)

Tablets:

• Dell's Streak 10 won't keep us waiting for long: come April, the Gallo will reportedly be chomping away at some tasty Honeycomb. But that's not all -- Dell lists a handwriting update for the Gallo in October or thereabouts. There's also a Streak 7 update scheduled for July -- we imagine that's the point when Dell believes it can shoehorn Android 3.0 onto its older brother.

• Meanwhile, Dell's 10-inch Windows 7 slate, internally known as Rosemount, is slated for June, with a 1366 x 768 resolution that should allow for native playback of 720p video.

• We can't tell you what the Sterling is, but it's likely a mid-sized one, as it's slated to take over the Streak 7's duties in or about October with Android Honeycomb on board.

• Finally, come CES 2012 in January, we now expect Dell to drop three new tablets at once: theOpus One and Silver Oak running Android Honeycomb, and the Peju with Windows 8. (The Streak 10 / Gallo will apparently soldier on.) Numbers on the left of the charge suggest that the Opus will be small, the Silver Oak mid-sized, and the Peju large.

As noted at the head of the slide, all details here are subject to change, but we're sure as heck a lot more confident that Dell plans to do something with all those tacky mockups. One more chart after the break!