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Apple’s iPad mini’s $329 price tag due to low touch screen yields, say sources

Thursday, October 25, 2012 · 3:30 pm · 21 Comments

“The US$329 price tag for Apple’s iPad mini is largely due to low yield rates for the device’s GF2 (DITO film) touch screen technology, according to industry sources,” Siu Han and Alex Wolfgram report for DigiTimes.

“The sources said the DITO film sensor is having mass production issues,” Han and Wolfgram report, “which has been a big contributor to why the device is approximately 40-50% more expensive compared to other 7-inch tablets that have OGS or G/G structures.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Fred Mertz" and "Rainy Day" for the heads up.]

Related article:
If you want an iPad mini, order it quickly: Limited supply due to touchscreen yield issues – October 24, 2012

Categories: News

Tags: DITO, G/F2, iPad mini, iPad mini demand, iPad mini displays, iPad mini price, iPad mini supply

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Comment Feed

21 Comments

Really

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:39 pm · Reply

Guess they should have went with Samsung lol
- Walter White
  
  Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:43 pm · Reply
  
  Apple needs to STOP putting freaking
  last years CPUs in Current Year Models.
  - Bizlaw
    
    Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:58 pm · Reply
    
    The A5 was introduced this year in the iPad 3 rev. Apple is introducing the A6 for the newest iPad and iPhone 5. The iPad mini is smaller, and doesn’t need as much to drive the images to the screen. Plus, Apple needs to differentiate the iPad from the iPad mini, and the faster processor in the iPad helps to do that.
  - Baloney
    
    Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 6:29 pm · Reply
    
    Spoken like a typical spec oriented Windows user.
  - JV
    
    Friday, October 26, 2012 - 12:36 am · Reply
    
    Android manufacturers needs to STOP putting freaking last years OSs in Current Year Models.
spyintheskyuk

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:43 pm · Reply

Going for the long view not short one and will pay off in so doing rather than being blackmailed by Samsung
Whatever

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:46 pm · Reply

Another freaking made up story – If that was the case the iPod touch would be priced cheaper due to High display output..
JES42

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:49 pm · Reply

Isn’t it funny that an article with this sort of information is posted within a half hour of the earnings call?? AAPL taking it in the shorts already, damn near $10 now.
- Whatever
  
  Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:58 pm · Reply
  
  Absolutely no reason for the stock to be dropping except for the manipulators – Apple is making money hand over fist – way more profitable than probably any other company..
James

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 3:59 pm · Reply

panic, panic, sell your stock… cutting edge displays can’t be produced quickly in numbers like shitty old ones for the no-profit Nexus or Kindle HD.
jer

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:01 pm · Reply

digitimes is just Full Of S***, high or low yields, APPLE don’t price
iPad that way.
- I don't care - thanks
  
  Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:08 pm · Reply
  
  Exactly – nothing to do with their pricing
  - DRMSSDB
    
    Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 5:06 pm · Reply
    
    How do you come to this conclusion? Yield from production is a direct contributor to component cost, which are critical to the price of a device.
    
    Whether that is really the issue here, I don’t know, but you cannot exclude the explanation as unreasonable.
I love Apple

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:09 pm · Reply

New technology sometimes has issues.
- Walter White
  
  Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 5:02 pm · Reply
  
  Apple needs to sell all devices with the current processors.
  
  Provide current cpus and older cpus as an optional lower price point – not as they do now. Scattered. iPhone gets the Newest. Just offer at different times of the year. Or complete product line updates. Getting tired of it Apple.
  - KRONOS
    
    Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 5:10 pm · Reply
    
    Newest troll.
    
    STFU and GFY. GTF off this board.
Sharon Sharalike

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:12 pm · Reply

They are launching in 34 countries. I doubt very much there are yield problems. Google loses money at $199 for the Nexus 7. That’s why this one costs more. FWIW, I wrote a post about this this morning.
currentinterest

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:13 pm · Reply

The $329 price allows Apple to make better margins on a device for which they will have trouble meeting the demand, and allows them to maintain a decent margin when the Retina iPad mini is introduced in 2013, and will allow them to drop the price of the current mini to $229 – $249. Very smart in my opinion.
Laughing_Boy48

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:30 pm · Reply

It doesn’t matter whether the display rumors are true or not. Apple’s share price will still end up below $600. The hedge funds have to cover their losses and Apple makes an excellent sacrificial lamb to feast on.
hoffbegone

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 4:33 pm · Reply

FUD

Being in manufacturing I know this is B.S. If there is a yield problem any manufacturer will eat it until they get it right. If it turns out unsolvable the product gets re-designed.

I personally think the sweat spot would have been $249. $2B would have subsidized production of 20M units, more than enough time to fix or re-design.

If, Apple thought they needed to price it lower they would have eaten the yield. Obviously, Apple is in the business to make money, and build quality products, not buy market share. They priced the iPad mini accordingly.
- Bizlaw
  
  Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 5:01 pm · Reply
  
  Agreed. Apple set the price WAY before the yield rates would have been known. Yield rates have nothing to do with the iPad mini’s price, just availability.
  
  What these analysts keep forgetting is that Amazon and Google have no interest in making money with their tablets; they make money because (hopefully) the more users, the more their other services get used.
  
  Apple makes money on hardware and will not create a loss leader type product just to get people into the Apple ecosystem. Apple actually works in the opposite direction — it’s viewed as a premium product, the object of desire, so people are willing to spend more to get one. Helps that Apple products are far superior, but that’s another post.