This rendition of the Apple Tablet, by Flickr user Fotoboer.nl and picked up by many media sites, has been said by trusted sources to closely resemble the real Tablet, minus a few missing iPhone elements.

T&A: Fast Company.com has an opinion piece on what the rumored Apple Tablet may bring to the landscape. While many of us assume it would pose a challenge in the e-book reader marketplace, especially with speculation that the company may be in talks with books, newspapers and magazine publishers, the blog piece does postulate a pretty convincing case.

Even app developers feel the same way, based on this feature from The New York Times.

As smartphones become more interactive and intuitive, the portable games market may see itself being transformed from a Bluetooth-based or pass-on-to-the-next-player social gaming environments to tablet-top like digital board-game situations. It’s a compelling social element that would draw many of the iPhone game developers towards.

And knowing the marketplace, and where the app revenue pie really lies, it’s little wonder then that the Tablet could very well be competing not just with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook and so on, but also with the game-related systems in your living room and beyond.

UPDATE 27/01/2010: Looks like the cat’s out of the bag? Mr. Terry McGraw, CEO of McGraw-Hill might have confirmed on air that Apple’s really releasing a tablet tomorrow. In a CNBC corporate earnings interview, at approximately the 2:50th-minute mark, he mentions that McGraw-Hill has been working with Apple for some time, that the device will sport the iPhone OS and will support transferability.

This could possibly mean two things: first, Apple will also be releasing an e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch for cross-ebook transfers, and second, the Tablet may be aimed at the higher education market.

Here’s the CNBC video interview: