Apple gets extra touch supplier to keep up with iPad demand
updated 11:05 am EDT, Wed September 15, 2010
Cando hired to keep iPad touch layers in supply
Signs that Apple is claimed to be coming onboard to handle the workload. The AUO sub-label has reportedly been asked to make some of the touch input layers for the iPad starting from either this month or October. Digitimes understands that its new 4.5th-generation factory can cut as many as 1,000,000 iPad touch sensors a month; most of the factory would be dedicated to the Apple deal.
Officially, Cando won't comment on its shipments to Apple.
Apple has been constrained by screen demand virtually since launch, creating a backlog that didn't alleviate until five months after launch. LG Display is still the main supplier of the custom 9.7-inch, IPS-based touchscreens with Seiko Epson likely supplying the touch panels, but Apple has already had to recruit Samsung to keep pace.
Production is already rumored to be at two million iPads a month now and could scale up to three million each month by the fall. The rate has already blown past Windows tablet figures and may give Apple a tablet lead insurmountable by the Galaxy Tab or any other tablet in the near future. Acer is said to be estimating 50 million tablet sales in the next three years where Apple may have shipped as many by the end of 2011.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2008
It's for these types of reasons why I don't
think Apple is going to be challenged by competitors. Most of the tablet vendors are not going to be able to scale up rapidly for such demand. Apple can just reach into its cash reserve and use as much money as it needs on an instant's notice. No restraints. Just get it done.
No doubt eventually components will catch up with demand, but meanwhile Apple is going to continue to pull ahead.