“Touch panel maker TPK Holding will begin to supply thin film-based touch sensors for use in a new iPhone equipped with AMOLED display panels in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to industry sources,” Siu Han and Adam Hwang report for DigiTimes.
“As AMOLED panels should be matched with Out-Cell (add-on) touch solution,” Han and Hwang report, “3D Touch modules for use in the new iPhone equipped with AMOLED panels involves a more complicated manufacturing process and adoption of thin film-based touch sensors, the sources noted.”
Han and Hwang report, “Prices for 3D Touch modules will rise from US$9 per module for models used in existing iPhone series to above US$15 for the one specifically for use in new iPhone equipped with AMOLED panels, and this will benefit TPK and GIS, the sources said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll pay it. We’ll wait for it. And, we’ll thoroughly enjoy our iPhone 7 Plus units in the meantime!
$15 component for 3D touch is over 60% price increase?
1. That means it was so cheap that they should not have gouged us for it in the first place.
2. 60% increase of small component should not affect on the price of phone. Absorb it, Apple! Like auto industry, continue making effort for cost reduction. Not easily pass it on to consumer, Apple!
Sounds like Pipeline Timmy’s usual smoke screen to justify exorbitant price and milk us more. $1,000 for a little phone? Going too far, Apple!
What prices?? What gouging???
The price of a base-model latest iPhone has been $650 for the past nine model years (3G, 3GS, 4, 4s, 5, 5s, 6, 6s, 7). The only exceptions were 5c and SE, the low-end alternatives.
There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that 7s, or 8, or any other future phone model would be priced any different.
In other words, every year, we are treated to a better device, with a faster processor, more RAM, better graphics, better cameras and more features, at the same price point as the year before. If we take into account inflation, the price of the iPhone keeps slowly falling every year.
While true to a point, you can’t deny that prices have indeed been going up and costs have been going down. Economies of scale.
I’m not sure which prices are you referring to, when you say that prices have been going up. As I had said, base model was always $650. It still is. Higher models (more storage, plus) were more expensive, and those price points were usually exactly $100 apart.
And when the SE was introduced, less than a year ago, it became the least expensive new model ever (with current processor, current camera and current iOS).
About the only way one could plausibly argue that the prices were going up is if one were to compare the average retail price of all sold iPhones. Before introduction of plus models, the most expensive iPhone was the top-tier model, at $850 (highest storage offering). As plus came out, the top-tier model became the highest-storage plus, which can now go as high as $960 (plus tax). Because the large-screen models didn’t exist before, the ASP ended up going up, thanks to brisk sales of plus-size models, but this never changed the pricing of base models and their derivatives (with larger storage).
One could argue that, thanks to the SE, the price had come down and not up.
Exactly who is leaking these prices? Another unnamed source, I suppose. Why is it no one seems to be checking out the cost of components for other companies’ smartphones? I don’t even see why it makes a difference. Do people check the component costs of cars and appliances. I’d really think most of those component costs should be kept a secret by suppliers and such.
This stupidity of going over the costs of each individual component is a waste of time. No matter what the cost is, there are people going to buy it. It would be like consumers buying a Lamborghini based on the cost of individual components like pistons, camshafts and connecting rods or leather trim. Who the frack cares what the individual parts cost in a Lamborghini. Consumers are buying a fully assembled product. Doesn’t R&D or branding count for anything? What’s the griping about? If a person can’t afford a product then they don’t have to buy it.
Won’t be a problem cause poor people don’t buy Apple. (Premium products for premium (read rich) customers)
While general trends may support your statement, it isn’t entirely true (depending on your definition of “poor”). People in the service industry, working for hourly wage, tilt heavily towards Android, but there are still quite many adults flipping burgers who own iPhones. Carriers are quite successful in obscuring the real price of the phone, so when someone sees “Free iPhone!*” advertising, they won’t bother to look at that asterisk in order to learn what “free” really means. For them, one day’s worth of Dunkin’ Donuts wages is worth giving up every month if that will put an iPhone in their pocket…