ZDNet’s Jason D. O’Grady has some further details on the rumors coming out of China this week regarding Apple’s mysterious “iTablet.”

Following up on the DigiTimes report that the tablet has been delayed from March, 2010 to the second half of the year, component makers have claimed that the delay is the result of Apple’s decision to offer a 9.7” OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) version with a panel from LG Display.

OLED offers a number of compelling benefits over traditional TFT (Thin Film Transistor) displays, among them a greater range of colors, gamut, brightness, contrast and viewing angle. OLED pixels directly emit light, unlike LCD displays, which use a backlight and are incapable of showing true black. OLED is also more energy-saving — when the elements are off, they produce no light and consume no power, where LCDs require polarizers filter out about half of the light emitted by the backlight.

All this OLED magic isn’t cheap. DigiTimes estimates that with 9.7” panels currently tagged about $500, Apple’s OLED tablet will cost between $1,500 and $1,700 — and that’s just the cost to manufacture! The retail price will be upwards of $2,000, even factoring in the likelihood that component costs will drop next year.

But as O’Grady concludes, “The good news is that the 10.6” TFT-based version should retail for a much more manageable $800 - $1,000 as has been rumored for quite awhile.”