An iFixit teardown of the iPad mini reveals some notable details about the tablet. The display, for instance, is built by Samsung, despite the company's ongoing legal battles with Apple. Samsung has long supplied parts for Apple products though, and was the only company producing screens for the third-generation iPad.
An Italian blog has posted photos of what it claims is the logic board for the iPhone 5, set to be announced later today. The board notably uses an A6 chip, indicating that Apple is finally advancing beyond the A5 line. When the third-generation iPad was introduced in March Apple designated its processor the A5X, since the chip was little different from the A5 except for graphics power.
One of Apple's major Japanese suppliers, Murata, has yet to recover from March's 9.0+ earthquake, reports say. The company is said to have previously provided "protective components" for Apple power supplies, but had that capacity critically disrupted by the quake's damage. As a result Apple has turned to a Taiwanese company, Thinking Electronic.
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.
