“Samsung Electronics Co. will supply the touch screen for Apple Inc.’s new iPad after LG Display Co. and Sharp Corp. didn’t meet the U.S. company’s quality requirements, according to an analyst with iSuppli,” Jun Yang reports for Bloomberg.
“Samsung, the world’s top flat-panel maker, currently is the sole vendor of the display for the 9.7-inch device, said Vinita Jakhanwal, a senior manager at iSuppli, a unit of Englewood, Colorado-based IHS Inc.,” Yang reports. “The supply deal deepens Apple’s partnership with Samsung, which already makes the chips that power the iPhone and iPad, even as the companies sue each other around the world regarding patents.”
Yang reports, “‘The display specifications on the new iPad are very demanding in terms of the very high resolution,’ Jakhanwal said in an e-mail. ‘Achieving this high resolution without compromising on the power consumption and brightness and maintaining Apple’s quality standards are supposedly proving to be a challenge for LG Display and Sharp.’ LG Display and Sharp may start shipping panels for the new iPad in April, said Jakhanwal, who’s based in Santa Clara, California. Apple may want to diversify its sources for the displays because of the lawsuits with Samsung, said Kang Yoon Hum, a Seoul-based analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
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Weird.
Just a hearsay.
Totally weird. I believe Sharp was the only company to produce the new screen. Sharp just designed the component.
but – http://www.macrumors.com/
“Sharp’s role in the new Retina iPad display has been particularly murky, with some sources claiming that the company was responsible for a new design intended for the display and that it would be a key manufacturing partner for Apple. Rumors of Sharp failing to meet Apple’s quality control standards surfaced in January, although a photo of a leaked display from Sharp surfaced a few weeks later. Another report from last month similarly suggested that Sharp was not a part of Apple’s supply chain for the new iPad display, despite having designed the component.”
Interesting bedfellows… Apple vs Samsung.
I, for one, figured Samsung would never see an Apple dollar again. I still believe that clock is slowly ticking.
When the Retina screen shows up on a Samsung Galaxy, this gigs up. Hurry up LG & Sharp.
And those “analyst with iSuppli” are ALWAYS right! ;-P
Strange bedfellows…
I always find it strange that companies work together like this, yet are suing each other in other areas.
Frenemies.
If Samsung actually had a tablet that sold I wouldn’t be surprised if they also had “production problems”. Fortunately they don’t, so they sheepishly take as much of Apple’s business as they can get. Apple really does need to diversify ASAP
I must say that I have difficulty reconciling in my mind that the SAME COMPANY – Samsung – is involved with Apple in two diametrically opposite ways: 1) Competing and suing aggressively and 2) a supplier of Apple components and, as we now understand, of very critical “Retina” displays for Apple’s new iPad. While “business is business,” this seems like a very strange relationship – one that I really don’t understand. While the contact between Apple and Samsung may be through different divisions, it is still the same name, same corporate management, and same ultimate ownership. It would be very difficult to carry on a loving marital relationship and, at the same time, beat your spouse – I would think.
This article smacks of DigiTimes.
I smell chloroform in the air, something to dope us all up into believing this incoherent rubbish.
Cooperation between competitors is very normal in this industry. Apple works closely with Google and Microsoft as well on certain things while competing viciously in other areas. It’s always been like this.
Yeah, I do understand that this relationship with Samsung is somewhat different considering all the lawsuits being hurled at each other but the truth of the matter is that they also need each other in the grand scheme of things: Apple needs the very best possible components on a very large scale and Samsung needs a customer who can keep their core chip and display factories humming.
It’s obvious that Apple would prefer to do business with someone else but if the likes of LG and Sharp (or a bunch of other potential vendors) can’t provide the quality and the volume Apple needs, what else can Apple do? And why would Samsung turn down orders of multi-billions from a single customer when no one else can come close to matching Apple’s volume?
It is indeed a very interesting relationship. Samsung simply kicks ass in the chip and display sectors and these are Samsung’s most profitable businesses. Samsung has crushed the Japanese competitors and the gap between Samsung and other vendors in these sectors is growing. Apple is simply going to go with what makes the most business sense and that means going with Samsung no matter how Apple feels about Samsung’s smartphone and tablet business.
It can’t be a comfortable feeling for either side. I’m sure Apple would prefer to spread the business around and will do so as time goes by but there is only so much capacity out there for these kinds of advanced technologies and Apple needs to fill it to prevent other competitors from using that capacity. Samsung’s chip and display divisions certainly don’t want to lose Apple either and the best way for them to keep Apple’s business is provide the best quality at the best price with the best delivery times, which is what it seems to be doing.
The scale in which these companies operate across the globe is hard to fathom for most people. It’s hard to imagine millions of phone being produced *per day* but that’s what’s going on in Asia. Our economies are so intertwined with an extremely complex web of business relationships that there really is no going back. Apple and Samsung both simply accept that not only will they co-exist and compete but cooperate as partners for a long time to come.
Cogent post, ak2000.
That is a ridiculous statement. Apple needs to diversify its sources for displays for multiple reasons – the battle with Samsung is only one of them.
What if Apple buys out Slamdung then?
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