14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese media reports that Apple has forgone the services of Samsung and Sharp in favor of Innolux Corporation, a local manufacturer of displays for devices like the iPhone and the iPad. The latest orders are said to be for the iPhone 6 coming out later this year.
UDN is not exactly the most reliable source of news, though it does live next door to some of Apple’s key suppliers, so it’s worth considering that they have ties to these component makers.
The latest industry chatter is that Apple doesn’t want Samsung as a display supplier because they’re enemies in the smartphone market, though such an argument makes little sense considering all the other business endeavors the two electronics companies share (mainly chips).
This isn’t the first time Apple has been said to plan breaking off ties with Samsung. Their countless patent litigations have brought the two giants to a spot where any partnership is spotted with risks, no matter how lucrative the model seems. It’s safe to assume that both parties are exercising tremendous caution nowadays.
However, it’s also worth noting that Apple and Samsung (as well as Apple and Google) have agreed to stop paying lawyers to do their quarreling and instead decided to settle their matters out of court. If this is indeed the case, then we don’t see why Apple would forgo Samsung as a display supplier, aside from other potential factors, such as yield rates and quality.
UDN says Apple has lined up Innolux Corporation, LG Display, and Japan Display as the sole suppliers of 4.7-inch screens for the next-generation iPhone 6.
With a screen this size, the phone will be somewhat bigger than the iPhone 5s but considerably larger than the iPhone 4S. Screen size has been the main culprit behind the iPhone’s diminishing market share over the past two years.
iPhone 6 is not expected to arrive at the Worldwide Developers Conference (June 2-6). Most bets are on a September unveiling with shipping around October, though some have claimed that Apple will hold an atypical event in August to showcase the new device.
The August claim comes from Reuters which itself cited Taiwanese media last week as saying that “Apple Inc will unveil the next incarnation of its popular iPhone series in August, one month earlier than industry watchers were generally expecting.” The information reportedly came from unidentified supply chain sources, which generally means component makers.