02/14, 6:55am
Apple could be prepping 8-inch iPad
A fresh rumor has surfaced suggesting that Apple may be sampling 8-inch tablet displays from AU Optronics and LG Display, according to WSJ . Apple is known to experiment with different displays for its devices, which do not always make it to market. However, while most people opt for 10-inch tablets where the iPad dominates, smaller tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire have made significant inroads into the expanding tablet market, costing Apple total market share.
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02/13, 10:10pm
iPad 3 run estimated 60pc higher than in 20111
A mix of suppliers and unnamed Korean press mentions have claimed that Apple is planning a dramatic increase in iPad shipments for 2012. Shipments for the new LCD panel, believed designed by Sharp but being manufactured by LG Display and Samsung, were said by the Commercial Times to be already booked to the order of 65 million to 75 million units for the year. Versus production of about 40.5 million in 2011, it would represent 60 to 73 percent higher shipments than last year.
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01/27, 11:50am
LG Display to make 48,000 flat panels per month
Flat panel supplier LG Display has revealed on Friday that it will begin production of its very impressive 55-inch OLED HDTV panel we got a close look at during CES in July. LG itself will put the panel into its 4mm thick, 55EM9600 HDTV, which was also introduced at CES. LG Display's prototype eight-generation production line will reportedly manufacture 48,000 of the panels per month.
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01/10, 2:15pm
LG Display gives us a glimpse of future products
LG Display (LGD) offered us a personal look into their future products at CES and we came away quite impressed with what we saw. OLED, particularly White Organic Light Emitting Diode (WOLED) is what the supplier is betting on for its future flagship displays as part of a mission to become the industry leader in displays. There are numerous reasons but chief among them is performance and price and how they relate to each other specifically.
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12/30, 4:05pm
iPad 3 screen possibly sighted for first time
Apple's rumored 2048x1536 display for the iPad 3 may have been leaked out for the first time in a forum posting on Korea's Naver. The panel is the same physical size as the existing iPad 2 display but has a third data connector, presumably to feed the four times higher resolution. A Korean appearance points to it likely coming from an LG Display or Samsung Mobile Display factory.
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12/25, 10:15pm
LG 55in OLED screen uses white OLED tech
LG Display gave a teaser of its CES plans by setting a record for the world's largest OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV screen. The 55-inch panel uses an oxide thin-film transistor instead of the usual low-temperature polysilicon from smaller OLED screens. Making the switch lets LG keep the costs down and make the much larger screen without necessarily hiking the price.
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12/15, 11:50pm
Apple may ship tiny iPad in Q2 for Q3 sale
Apple's rumored 7.85-inch iPad was claimed late Thursday to be going into production in late spring. Part suppliers talking to Digitimes believed Apple was staggering the introduction of a second model, launching the iPad 3 towards March but shipping its miniature counterpart before the fall, leaving the summer as the likely target. Previously alluded production plans would see both AU Optronics and LG Display making the new screens.
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11/17, 11:10pm
Three LCD makers said shipping 3m iPad 3 screens
Apple's iPad 3 screen plans have already seen it take millions of the displays, according to claims from the part chain made late Thursday. LG, Samsung, and new partner Sharp reportedly shipped one million of the new screens in October, with two million due to have reached assembly plants by the end of November. TPK and Wintek, which primarily make touchscreen layers, may be shipping a million units combined each month, starting as soon as this week but no later than December.
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11/17, 8:05am
iPad 2 stock trims as iPad 3 gets new supplier
Apple may be cutting back on iPad 2 shipments as it gears up to introduce a new supplier for iPad 3 LCDs, according to new rumors from the parts chain. LCD contractors were said by Digitimes to be making "inventory adjustments" by about 850,000 of the tablet's screens. In October, LG Display had cut its production by 500,000, while Chi Mei Innolux had cut its small output in half from 700,000 to 350,000.
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11/15, 8:45am
Japan Display unites to make phone, PC displays
Hitachi, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Sony, and Toshiba on Tuesday formalized a deal to create a united display maker. Called Japan Display, it will consolidate the production of small- to medium-sized displays, such as those on smartphones, tablets, and computers. The coalition will take 70 percent of its funding from the government-backed Innovation Network while the three private firms will each have an equal share of the rest.
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11/14, 5:45pm
LG Display supposedly in display talk
A rumor [since pulled] from the Korea Times has rekindled talk of Apple sourcing new LG screens. Both companies are purportedly meeting in the next few days to give Apple a four-inch LCD for the new iPhone and an unusual 7.35-inch tablet display. The four-inch screen would supposedly keep the 640x960 resolution, since it would provide "better cost-cuts," the Korean outlet said.
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11/07, 10:25am
Nook Tablet confirmed at event
Barnes & Noble at its special event confirmed the rumored launch of the Nook Tablet. The seven-inch sequel to the Nook Color is now much more of a media tablet with a dual-core processor and a doubled 1GB of RAM. The speed upgrade lets the Android 2.3 device handle 1080p video along with new Hulu Plus and Netflix apps and newer games.
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10/31, 8:20pm
Fines spread between ten companies
The South Korean government has fined 10 LCD makers for allegedly fixing prices for display components. The list of companies includes all of the major players, including Samsung, LG Display and AU Optronics. Total fines have been set at 195 billion won (~$173 million USD), though Samsung faces the largest single fine of 97.2 billion won (~$86 million USD).
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10/18, 10:30am
Rumor has small iPad screens testing for tiny iPad
A rumored small iPad might have manifested itself if a purported leak is accurate. Both AU Optronics and LG Display were said by Taiwan's Economic Daily News to be sending Apple samples of a 7.85-inch touchscreen with the same 1024x768 resolution as the current, 9.7-inch iPad. Broadcom would supply the touchscreen's controller chipset, while Kinsus would make the substrate.
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10/10, 5:00am
LG LCD uses a panel single vertical backlight
LG Display has developed what it claims is the world’s most energy efficient LCD TV panel. The new 47-inch 1080p LCD panel uses a new vertical single side LED backlight technology that helps to consume less electricity while still delivering high levels of brightness. LG claims that although 47-inches in size, its panel uses less electricity than typical panels LCD TV panels 40-inches in size and even normal PC monitors over 20-inches in size.
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09/28, 10:45am
27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display torn down
Apple's 27-inch, $1,000 Thunderbolt Display has been torn down by the iFixIt team. No special tools were needed to take the screen apart, with suction cups, Torx T6 and T10 screwdrivers and spudgers all that's required. The team was impressed by the easy disassembly process and gave the monitor an 8 out of 10 repairability score.
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08/29, 10:10am
LG cuts capital TV costs in switch to mobile
LG Display explained Monday that it would cut its capital spending by exactly a quarter. The company explained the move as necessary with smartphones and tablets cutting into demand for TVs. It planned to spend a comparatively modest $2.8 billion and had dropped plans for an extra factory, since existing plants would have to take over.
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08/22, 9:45am
Company worried about costs, technical issues
Apple will probably not use OLED in its rumored TVs, say "directly involved" sources cited by the Korea Times. "It's true that Apple has keen interest in TV, allowing users to stream music, videos and TV shows via iTunes, though that needs some iPhone and iPad integration, however, Apple is still pessimistic about using OLED displays," one source is quoted as saying. The person elaborates that because Apple is worried about costs and technical problems associated with large-sized OLEDs, rumors that Apple has asked LG Display to supply OLEDs for TVs are "groundless."
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08/10, 9:30am
Parts fail drop tests
Apple has suspended new iPad 2 panel orders from LG Display because of some serious production issues, say industry sources. LG's panels allegedly failed recent drop tests, during which backlight units malfunctioned. The company's yield rates, more critically, are said to be below Apple requirements. In July LG shipped somewhere between 2.5 and 2.6 million panels, a million units below its original goal for the month. The company's longer-term goal is 4 million a month.
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07/03, 11:50pm
iSuppli gives HP TouchPad an early cost breakdown
iSuppli on Sunday estimated that the HP TouchPad cost $306.65 to make. The raw parts cost for a 16GB Wi-Fi model is about $17 less than a 3G iPad 2 and suggests HP's Palm team opted to focus on a similar level of quality and profit margin.
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07/03, 11:05am
Chinese clone tablets get excess Android
Chinese tablet makers making white box (no-name) iPad clones are in many cases getting millions of Apple's own leftover iPad screens, the Taiwan supply chain detailed this weekend. With LG Display and Samsung making between 12 million to 15 million of the 9.7-inch IPS panels, no more than nine million go to Apple and leave millions that haven't met Apple's standards but which are often good enough to use, Digitimes said. Android tablets like SmartDevices' SmartQ T10 (pictured) as well as those from AGSO and Wanlida are in many cases not just using the excess displays but trying to copy Apple.
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06/30, 7:50am
Apple to move 12-14m iPads in summer
Apple has been getting more aggressive for iPad production in the spring and most of all the summer, suppliers maintained Thursday. Shipments for the tablet are estimated to have doubled to between seven million and nine million iPads in the spring and to jump about 50 percent again in the summer to between 12 million and 14 million. Tips to Digitimes have hinted that Apple has been stockpiling parts all through the spring, such as LG Display's screens, to make sure it won't run short during the summer.
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06/17, 8:40am
iPad-sized touchscreens hit 5.38m in May alone
A new breakdown of tablet display shipments by Displaybank on Friday has hinted that iPad shipments could be much higher than they were in the winter. Deliveries of 9.7-inch touchscreens, used almost exclusively by the iPad, hit 5.38 million units in May alone. About 4.5 million of those were from Apple's two main contractors for iPad screens, LG Display (three million) and Samsung (1.5 million).
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06/14, 6:45pm
iOS 5 code shows iPad 3 Retina Display still alive
New art assets found inside iOS 5 have revived hopes that Apple was making a 2048x1536 iPad display. Much like the iBooks discovery in January, backgrounds and other parts of the Twitter framework are at the extra-large resolution. The TechUnwrapped source hadn't found it anywhere else in the OS so far, though, suggesting that Apple wasn't ready to commit to releasing a sharper tablet in the near future.
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05/27, 1:30pm
Should streamline iPad 2 production
Chimei Innolux is indeed set to become another Apple touch sensor supplier, and will start shipping parts to Apple in June, industry sources say. The development may help Apple to streamline production of the iPad 2. Chimei is an affiliate of Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturing partner. In combination with Chimei's development of IPS flat panels, Apple should have access to a one-stop shop for iPads, the sources suggest.
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05/05, 10:50pm
LG light leaks pinned for iPad 2 shipment issues
A large part of the iPad 2's shortage issues were put at LG Display's feet on Thursday night through claims from supply sources. LG Display reportedly had light leakage problems for screens made at its sixth-generation LCD plant and could only ship 3.2 million iPad LCDs between January and March. Samsung, already helping out, ended up producing more at seven million, Digitimes understood.
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04/25, 9:40am
Acer may use LG Shuriken LCD for thin notebooks
LCD display makers claimed Monday that Acer was planning to claim an edge in the ultraportable space by using the same display technology behind the LG Xnote P210. An unnamed notebook from the company would use LG Display's new ultra-compact Shuriken LCD to get a 14-inch screen into a 13.3-inch frame. The design identified to Digitimes would cut the bezel thickness by a third, to 0.31 inches, and make the entire panel just 0.16 inches thick.
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04/11, 10:35pm
Suppliers say iPad 3 not in cards for 2011
Component builders said late Monday that talk of an iPad 3 in the fall was wrong based on Apple's early plans. The company has reportedly provided a handful of details calling for a higher resolution display, but the details were at the "initial planning stage" and unlikely to show up at all in 2011. They told Digitimes they hadn't received any received any notices for production and had been seeing "strong" orders for the iPad 2 that cast doubt on a launch so soon.
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03/31, 11:10am
AUO said tapped for iPad 2 screen production
A rumor on Monday claimed that AU Optronics had won a major deal to supply screens for the iPad 2. Taiwan's Economic Daily News asserted that the local but fourth-largest LCD company would make the 9.7-inch LCDs to supplement production. It might ship as many as 30 million in one year, or enough to consume more than half the production of its Taichung factory.
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03/23, 9:00pm
Samsung to have 300DPI tablet LCDs by 2013
Samsung in a Display Strategy preview on Wednesday gave a timeline for when its own tablet-sized LCDs could reach the densities many would expect for one of its tablets or an ultra-sharp iPad. the company expects displays with 200DPI to 300DPI roughly around 2013, halfway through its current roadmap. In the presentation, Engadget and others were also told the screens would be thinner and get an extra two hours of battery life on a device the size of the seven-inch Galaxy Tab.
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03/13, 10:00pm
iSuppli and UBM estimate iPad 2 at 326 tops
Analysts have provided somewhat conflicting cost breakdowns for the iPad 2 that nonetheless both put the Motorola Xoom in a poor light. iSuppli said Apple's tablet should cost $323.35 in raw parts for a 32GB, Verizon (EVDO) version or $326.60 for its AT&T (HSPA) equivalent. The HSPA version needs chipsets with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi separate from the Intel/Infineon cellular chip where the EVDO version uses an all-in-one Qualcomm chipset, much like in the Verizon iPhone.
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02/23, 7:35am
Next iPad may lose 100K-200K production
Apple's future iPad may have seen a drop in early production owing to both problems and a late change from Apple itself. New tips from part suppliers suggest that Apple will have shrunk its initial iPad 2 production in the first quarter of the year by 100,000 to 200,000 tablets, down to 300,000 to 400,000. Low supply of touchscreen layers and an "adjustment in specifications" were to blame, Digitimes' sources said.
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02/10, 1:10pm
Apple may talk to Samsung for Super PLS on iPad
Samsung could supply its Super PLS LCD technology for an upcoming iPad, a Korean newspaper rumored late Wednesday. The company and Apple are reportedly in the "final stage" of talks for getting screens for the future tablet. The Korea Herald understood that Apple was "interested" in Super PLS for the wider viewing angles versus even the IPS panels it uses today.
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01/30, 7:30pm
Concord says next iPad has 1.2GHz dual-core A9
The next iPad's hardware was given unusually detailed specifications through a new note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at Concord Securities. He supported beliefs that the Apple tablet would have a dual-core, ARM Cortex-A9 but suggested that it would clock in at 1.2GHz, a significant step up from the 1GHz single-core A8 used today. The performance would put it on par with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon and NVIDIA's upcoming Tegra 2 3D.
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01/19, 10:35pm
Part suppliers say iPad 2 2048x1536 screen intact
Debate over whether the iPad 2 might use a 2048x1536 display was furthered again on Wednesday night with a claim that the technology was still in the works for the new model. Part manufacturers said that the higher resolution would be part of the new model as it went into its large-sized iBooks images were, despite doubts, clues as to the strategy.
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12/28, 9:40pm
LCD makers put Apple's iPad shipments at 65m
Apple could ship as many as 65 million iPads in 2011 based on the LCD orders it's placing, according to estimates from Tuesday night. LG Display is still said to be shipping the bulk of the tablet's displays, at 35 million, but frequent contributor Samsung and relative newcomer Chimei Innolux are each though to be pitching in 15 million of their own. Observers in the business told Digitimes this might be a positive sign for Apple's next iPad but also that it could represent an overcommitment.
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12/13, 2:15pm
Toshiba spending 1.2b for iPhone LCD plant
Toshiba is building a large factory dedicated primarily to making LCDs for Apple, Nikkei said today. The Japanese firm would spend about $1.19 billion to make small LCDs and would primarily supply high resolution, low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCDs for iPhones. Apple is directly involved and will help fund the plant, the daily said.
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12/09, 2:35pm
Toshiba power outage hurts NAND flash, maybe Apple
Toshiba today said it had a power outage at its Yokkaichi plant that could affect flash memory supply. The failure at 5:21AM yesterday stopped production and won't be fixed until sometime Friday. Without the two days of production, the company said it could lose as much as 20 percent of its planned flash shipments for January and February.
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12/01, 4:25pm
Samsung intros PLS as improvement on LCDs
Samsung today unveiled a new form of LCD technology that could improve image quality even beyond existing IPS displays. Known as Super PLS (Plane to Line Switching), it changes the shape of the pixels to emit more light from the sides. The technique doubles the typical viewing angle with a bright picture but also improves the overall brightness by 10 percent.
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11/24, 8:25am
LG produces 23-inch 240Hz IPS display
LG Display today unveiled a new 23-inch IPS LCD that can refresh at 240Hz. A combination of a fast-updating 120Hz panel with a rapidly flashing scanning backlight lets it produce an update speed normally reserved for much larger TV sets. A copper bus line helps keep the display updating quickly, at 8ms, while still giving the deep color and wide viewing angles inherent to IPS.
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11/23, 8:25am
Foxconn starts iPad factories to cope with demand
Foxconn's recently launched Chengdu factories have turned tor producing iPads to help cope with demand, part makers claimed on Tuesday. The lines for the Apple tablet would start out at 10,000 per day, but at 300,000 per month would help keep up with holiday demand and beyond. Insiders for Digitimes said it had already started shipping iPads this month and could be a "major supply base" by early 2011, in time for the next-generation iPad.
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11/05, 12:30pm
Chimei said making iPad displays in 2011
Taiwan's Chimei Innolux may be giving Apple an increasing amount of help making iPad displays next year, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said on Friday. It claimed that just 10 percent of the touchscreens would be made by Chimei next year but that it would gradually play a more important role over the course of the year, taking up 15 percent of the load in the spring, 20 percent in the summer and 30 percent next fall. The analysts expected tablets like the iPad to account for six percent of Chimei's revenue in 2011 and 10 percent a year later.
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11/02, 11:00am
Flat panels require only 4mm spacing
LG Display announced that it has developed the world's narrowest bezel display panel. The new unit is a 37-inch LCD that requires a gap of no more than 4mm (0.16in) between screens. Because the panels are designed to be used in a multi-unit array, the installation can be tailored to the available space in any venue.
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11/01, 7:45pm
iSupply finds Galaxy Tab overpriced versus iPad
Samsung may be charging a premium on the Galaxy Tab despite it actually costing less to make than an iPad, iSuppli estimated today in a cost breakdown. Although the Galaxy Tab is within $30 of a 3G iPad in stores, it only costs about $205.22 in raw parts where Apple's larger 16GB tablet costs $59 more to produce. Analysts indirectly accused Samsung of making an upsized Galaxy S phone but charging a tablet premium.
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09/22, 9:20am
Analyst learns 3m CDMA iPhones enroute
Susquehanna analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro today claimed in a research note that Apple will make three million CDMA iPhones in December. Checks with Asian suppliers led him to believe the company is queuing up the large amount in anticipation of a launch in early 2011. Combined with GSM models, as many as 21 million to 22 million iPhones could be produced in the last three months of the year.
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09/15, 11:05am
Cando hired to keep iPad touch layers in supply
Signs that Apple is claimed to be coming onboard to handle the workload. The AUO sub-label has reportedly been asked to make some of the touch input layers for the iPad starting from either this month or October. Digitimes understands that its new 4.5th-generation factory can cut as many as 1,000,000 iPad touch sensors a month; most of the factory would be dedicated to the Apple deal.
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08/28, 5:15pm
Apple gets iPad shipping down to same day
Apple on Saturday quietly shortened the shipping times for new iPads on the Apple Store to 24 hours. Every model now ships within a day after it was ordered and follows just a few days after ship times shrank to a few days earlier the same week. It's unclear if Apple retail stock has caught up, but other international stores also show the reduced lead time.
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07/22, 11:10pm
LG Display says iPad demand higher than supply
LG Display can't keep up with the demand for iPad screens, chief Kwon Young-soo said Thursday [sub. required]. He warned that Apple was ordering "more and more" of the tablet's LCDs to match demand but that LG can't keep up. The demand is such that LG may have to squeeze out others and won't be completely free to meet demand until spring of next year.
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06/28, 8:35am
iPhone 4 costs more to make than iPhone 3GS
The iPhone 4 is Apple's most expensive ever phone to make short of the original phone itself, a price breakdown by iSuppli has found. A 16GB example costs about $187.51 in raw parts; the bill is less than the $223 of the 2007 original but more than the $173 iPhone 3G and the $178.96 iPhone 3GS. Most of that cost increase is attributed to the LG Display-built 960x640 IPS screen, which is estimated to cost $28.50 all by itself.
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06/18, 2:00pm
Analyst claims LG's 960x640 screen stalling iPhone
Apple's growing shortages for the iPhone 4 before launch may have been sparked by the unique 960x640 Retina Display at its heart. Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar claims that supply checks have Apple cutting its monthly iPhone 4 production in half to two million units due to LG Display's inability to make enough LCDs in time. There's a "non trivial risk" that demand for the legacy iPhone 3GS could trail off in the summer quarter before the iPhone 4's production is in full swing, Kumar said.
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