Rush to compete with Apple's iPad places strain on component suppliers
According to Taiwan's DigiTimes, the display industry is expected to experience both shortages and excess inventories throughout 2011. iSuppli IHS has predicted that global tablet shipments will more than triple in 2011, reaching 57.6 million units, with Apple retaining the lion's share of shipments with 70.4 percent.
Because the tablet market is growing but the true sales potential remains unknown, display suppliers will be "forced to gamble production capacity on the unrealistically high projections of their tablet customers," said Joe Abelson, vice president of displays at IHS. Manufacturers adopting different display sizes and specs will lead to shortages and excesses in 2011, he predicted.
A side effect of this strain could be heavy discounts on unused displays, or even scrapping of unwanted hardware. iSuppli also believes the demand for netbooks will continue to shrink as tablets grow.
In 2012, iSuppli sees Apple retaining 61.7 percent of the tablet market with the iPad. Competitors are expected to increase their share, splitting up the remaining 38.3 percent of sales.
DigiTimes has previously reported that Apple's overseas partners are set to begin production of the next-generation iPad this month. In all, about a half-million iPads are expected to be assembled as Apple stocks up for a forthcoming launch of the second-generation device.
Forecasts for this year also call for a "breakthrough" in manufacturing of active-matrix organic LED displays. Investments in AMOLED are seen as finally paying off, making the screens more popular in mobile devices, and perhaps even appearing in HDTVs for sale on retail shelves.
The Taiwanese industry publication reported in December that constrained supplies of AMOLED screens would keep the display from Apple's next-generation iPad. The Cupertino, Calif., company will reportedly stick with an LCD screen for the second-generation tablet.
39 Comments
Tsk, tsk.... look at what ya done, Steve. Almost overnight, too.
cool
apple and SJ have worked their contracts and volumes-best price, best volumes best delivery date. SJ is fleet of foot, and we know who will win the race.
others pick up the scraps and AT A HIGHER PRICE AND LESS TIMELY
SJ is awesome
so no wonder others have to push 7" pads they can't get the cost low as SJ and
well, apple wins AGAIN. yea SJ
The AMOLED situation will hurt Apple somewhat. Not a lot, but it will have an impact.
It's similar to the situation back when Apple was the first to receive one of the new Intel chips - and was able to ship the Mac Pro with the next generation chips before anyone else simply because Intel couldn't yet produce enough chips for HP or Dell, but had plenty for Apple's needs.
Same thing applies with AMOLED. Eventually, they'll start producing 7 to 10" screens, but the quantity will be far too limited for the iPad at first. That means that the competitors will have a period when they can offer AMOLED screens while the iPad can't (same thing with the iPhone today). This is compounded by the fact that the iPad needs a 10" screen while the competitors are mostly using 7".
With introduction of new technologies, smaller players very often benefit for some time before the big guys can do anything. The public sees this as "Big Company X moves too slowly - look at Little Company Y which already offers this feature" when, in reality, it may simply be component availability.
I doubt if it's going to have all that much impact on sales, but it will activate all the trolls and 'analysts' who will insist that the competitors have passed Apple because of their 'superior' screen technology.
Sounds like lots of wasted components.
Sounds like lots of wasted components.
The word "plethora" reminded me of 'phlegm' - something you'd cough up to make yourself feel a little better. Gotta get it out of your system. The execs pushing their companies to cough up these devices aren't visionaries, they aren't changing the world, they aren't leaders, and no one will remember them once they're gone. So they cough these things up, just to make themselves feel better.