The Apple Tablet is coming. What is it you ask? It’s an oversized iTouch. It will be perfect for surfing the web in bed or on the couch. The Apple Tablet will be just perfect. Why? One reason: The Apple App Store.

Apple has just released the massive number on the App Store -3 Billion Download – AMAZING.

CUPERTINO, California—January 5, 2010—Apple® today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone® and iPod touch® users worldwide.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months—this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

According to the Wall Street Journal Apple plans to ship their new Apple Tablet computer in March. According to AllThingsD John Paczkowski, Apple will hold the announcement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan. 27, not Tuesday, Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

The Apple Tablet is supposed to feature either a 10 or 11-inch touch screen. Price will be around $1,000 with e-reader software according to the Wall Street Journal.

Not sure of the success of this new Tablet device? Just look at the iTouch. The iTouch never should have succeeded. It was an over sized iPod an iPhone with no phone for crying out loud. Who would ever buy that product? Hmmm … combine the iTouch with the Apple App Store and you have a mini-tablet. Bingo done deal.

One thing that many don’t seem to be saying is that (according to my sources) the Apple Tablet is a outgrowth of the massive success of not the iPhone but the iTouch and App Store.

According to one of my inside sources at Apple, the entire company was in shock with the success of the iTouch. Apple insiders considered the iTouch as a way to get iPhone inventory out in the market via a differentiated iPod. Expectations were low. What Apple didn’t see coming down the tracks like a freight train was the APP STORE.

The iTouch App Store combo proved the market value proposition for Apple. Since then my sources have been telling me that they Apple Tablet has been on the fast track.

The App Store validated that a non-phone would be of value. The timing couldn’t have been perfect for Apple. In years passed Tablets have come and gone – just ask uber-blogger Robert Scoble he loves tablets. Robert Scoble and fans of the web will love the Apple Tablet. I know that I will.

The Apple Table will basically be a oversized iTouch. Sounds simple but with the App Store the Apple Tablet will rock.