“Apple Inc will be unable to widely roll out a new version of the iPad Mini with a high-resolution “retina” display this month, people who work in the company’s supply chain said, leaving the gadget without the sharper screen found on rival tablets from Google Inc and Amazon.com,” Clare Jim and Reiji Murai report for Reuters.
“Apple’s supply chain is only now gearing up to make retina displays for the iPad Mini, which means the gadgets could be available in only limited quantities this year, if at all, and the company may miss the chance to cash in on the year-end holiday shopping season, the sources said,” Jim and Murai report. “Cupertino, California-based Apple has come under pressure to preserve market share and bolster sales against rivals that are rapidly raising specifications and lowering prices.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Pressure” from whom? Clueless analysts and feckless pundits, that’s who.
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers.
Jim and Murai report, “Apple declined to comment about any product launches and the sources at companies in Apple’s supply chain declined to be identified due to the confidentiality of the matter… The reason behind the delays in manufacturing the retina display screens for the iPad Mini were unclear. One source at a supplier said there were delays in Apple’s certification of panel producers, which were given strict power-saving requirements. LG Display Co Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s display unit and Sharp Corp all vied to manufacture the panels, supply chain sources said.”
“Given the time required to ramp up screen production, a retina display-equipped iPad Mini would not be available in large volumes until early next year, the sources said,” Jim and Murai report. “The sources expected Apple to either wait until early next year for a full-fledged launch of a retina display iPad Mini, or to make a retina version only available in limited quantities before the end of the year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
The supply chain is very complex, and we obviously have multiple sources for things. Yields might vary, supplier performance might vary… Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret that data point as to what it meant for our business. – Apple CEO Tim Cook
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]