14 DAY TRIAL // A report from Taiwan says Apple is unlikely to release its rumored television offering this year, because Sharp “seems unready to start shipping the IGZO panels needed for the production of iTV sets,” according to industry sources.
Apple was said to have tapped the Japan-based panel maker to produce different sizes of IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) panels in the 32-inch and 55-inch range for a revolutionary “iTV”.
Even if it started production of said panels, “yield rates of Sharp's IGZO panels are also a major concern,” the sources said, according to Taiwan’s industry publication DigiTimes.
Yet analyst Gene Munster, with Piper Jaffray, reportedly had a chat with a “major TV component supplier” last month and learned that Apple was, indeed, poised to launch the product later this year.