iPad 3 delayed due to poor Retina display yields

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

Apple’s iPad 3 has been pushed back to a 2012 release due to manufacturing issues with the tablet’s planned Retina display. DigiTimes is hearing that two supply partners for the screen are unable to reach a good yield.

Apple’s high-resolution 9.7-inch panel is said to operate at a staggering 2,048 x 1,536. Since the display has such a high resolution, it requires a much larger backlight source to properly illuminate the screen. A single edge light bar isn’t enough to reach the satisfaction level that Apple has put in place. Knowing Apple, they likely want to shrink the iPad 3 even further, meaning less space for light sources inside the thin tablet.

Digitimes' sources indicate that supply partners Samsung Electronics and LG Display have been unable to reach a suitable manufacturing yield on the high-res display. Sharp is Apple’s primary provider though they weren’t mentioned as having difficulties with the screen. Even though a majority of panels would be available to build the tablets, it seems that Cupertino doesn’t want to risk a launch where they are unable to control a certain minimum level of product supply.

“Apple was originally set to launch its iPad 3 in the second half of 2011 with a supply volume of 1.5-2 million units in the third quarter and 5-6 million in the fourth quarter, but Apple's supply chain partners have recently discovered that the related figures have all already been deleted,” says DigiTimes.

The Retina display term was coined by Apple and used to describe the 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 resolution touchscreen on the iPhone 4. At a viewing distance of 12 inches, Apple claims that the display meets the maximum quality potential that the human eye can distinguish and that a higher resolution screen would have no visual effect.

Supply of the iPad 2 will continue to hold strong, however. It is estimated that 28-30 million iPad 2 units will come off the assembly line in the second half of 2011.

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Does Apple make any of its own products? Or are they litterally all outsourced and made by other companys?
 
burty117 said:
Does Apple make any of its own products? Or are they litterally all outsourced and made by other companys?

Everyone outsources.... Your car was made in like 15 different countries. it's far cheaper and faster to buy a finished product from an expert than make your own. When the original iPod came out the company that made the tiny internal harddrive was the real hero of innovation. And we dont' even know who they are.
 
Even most "made in America" products are just assembled here. It's quite rare to find a completely local supply chain, and most of those are organic and expensive.
 
It looks like there won't be any more Samsung displays for Apple in the near future.However, for me and people my age a high resolution display is futile and does not justify.I can use a fullHD resolution of 1920x1080(1200) on a 12'' display, but 2048x1536 on a 9" screen it's too much even for Steve's eyesight.
 
For example, list of companies that outsource to Foxconn (China): Apple, Acer, Amazon.com, Asus, Intel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft and Sony Ericsson.

Apple doesn't manufacture most of its parts, but they do design or make special modification requests for a lot of their components. Apple's A4 and A5 chips used in iPhones and iPads are customized CPUs ?ARM Cortex? based on Apple's specifications.

A Retina Display iPad surely has been in the works for sometime, but the iPad 2 was announced just this year, and current iOS devices approximately have a gap of about a year before the next version is announced. If Apple releases an updated iPad this year I would say it would be an 'S' upgrade before christmas season, although I wouldn't bet on it, but with Apple who knows most of the rumors are fishy.
 
milwaukeemike said:
Everyone outsources.... Your car was made in like 15 different countries. it's far cheaper and faster to buy a finished product from an expert than make your own..

That's the way the new world order (bilderberg group) set it up so that each country would be reliant on central bankers to get what they need through trade outside their nations, hence creating a central bank world gov't
 
I still think the name Retina display is stupid. To bad their marketing people are so lame.

They should have called it the Crisp display. Get it!

Apple Crisp
 
This is america. They should have called it the Perfect In Eye display.

Apple PIE.
 
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