Josh OngToshiba Mobile Display will construct the plant, which will produce low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels, in the Ishikawa prefecture of Japan, Reuters reports the Nikkei business daily as saying.
Update: Reuters has updated its original report to include a response to the rumor from a Toshiba spokesman. "The report was untrue and nothing had been decided regarding a new plant to build LCD panels for Apple," Reuters reported the spokesman as saying.
Work on the new plant is expected to start by early next year, with production beginning in the second half of 2011, the report noted. Toshiba will reportedly spend about 100 billion yen ($1.19 billion) on the factory.
A preexisting Toshiba plant in the prefecture has a monthly capacity of 8.55 million LCD panels. The new plant is projected to more than double Toshiba's capacity for low-temperature polysilicon panels.
The Nikkei reported that Apple plans to contribute to a portion of the factory investment, though it didn't specify how much.
At the unveiling of the iPhone 4, Apple touted the device's 325 pixels-per-inch Retina Display as the best of any smartphone. "We think this is going to set the standard for the next several years," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Nearly 6 months after the iPhone 4's launch, its global supply remains constrained. In China, wait times for the iPhone 4 are around 2 months and China Unicom has been unable to fulfill a third of its preorders.
In the U.S., availability of the iPhone 4 has improved significantly, with both the 16GB and 32GB currently listed as shipping within 24 hours on Apple's website. Early demand for Apple's latest smartphone caused shortages in the U.S. throughout the summer, but supply has increased in recent months.
Apple revealed in October that it had sold a record 14.1 million iPhones in the September quarter, up 91 percent year over year. During an earnings conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer admitted that Apple was struggling to keep up with demand and could have sold even more iPhones if available.
Wall street analysts expect Apple to have an "extremely strong" December quarter with the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air topping many holiday gift lists.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
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22 Comments
Personally, I'm just hoping that the next iPhone will have a larger screen (at least 3.7 inches), as I find cramming ever-more pixels onto the same little 3.5 incher to be a pretty dubious endeavor.
At 3.8 inches the loss in pixel density will be pretty negligible, but usable touch-surface will increase noticeably.
Note: 640x960 at 3.8 inches = 303.63ppi, placing it just above Job's 300ppi 'Retina Display' threshold.
I hope this is true, because it would make it an easier jump for me to believe Apple is working on IPS panels that are low power and inexpensive enough to be viable in consumer notebooks, something that has not yet been possible.
So is it true or not? The updated story seems to indicate it's just more unsubstantiated hoo-hah.
I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes sense. After all this time there are still shortages of the iPhone 4 as indicated by it not being "ships in 24 hours" in all countries.
The most likely cause of that is supply shortage and the most likely cause of that is the cutting edge screen.
It would be nice if Apple brought manufacturing back to the US again. With all the billions in cash, you would think that would be the right thing to do.