In an Oct. 6 research note to clients — as reported by “Forbes” (http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoyke/2010/10/06/analyst-sees-45-million-ipads-in-2011-next-gen-ipad-launching-soon/), Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White says that Apple is developing a smaller version of the iPad and suggests that sales numbers of the original iPad could reach 45 million in 2011.

Those estimates are higher than those of other analysts. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster recently predicted that Apple would ship 21 million units of the iPad in 2011. Apple hasn’t revealed sales figures since late June, when it announced that it had sold more than three million iPads during the device’s first 80 days of availability. It is expected to give an update when it reports earnings on Oct. 18, notes “Forbes.”

There’s been speculation that Apple may roll out a thinner iPad with a built-in camera and mini-USB drive. How much thinner? Seven inches, by several rumors.