Apple's secret $3.9B investment could buy 136M iPhone, 60M iPad displays - Page 2

It is of no value to the readers and is simply there to generate cash for the site.

The cost to me is loosing a site that I use to like! One that concentrated on Apple gadgets and rumors.

I don't have a problem with AI making money, in fact I want them too, after all bills are there to be paid. What I don't want to see is a bunch of crap articles that aren't relevant. Let's face it the earnings report and the professional screw ups are old news now.

The problem is there is very good news out there that AI has failed to report on. For example Samsung is set to run at the 32/28nm node. That should be big news on any Apple related site. Instead we have two days of crap reporting.

I guess it is a question of why you come to this site. I'd like to see a good mix of rumors and facts. AI use to be pretty good at this but things have really taken a sharp turn for tge worst especially with respect to article quality. In the end if you turn away enough people paying the bills becomes a problem.

I see this report as being relatively valuable - it is an outsider report. I have no problem with it. The only AI thread I have disliked recently was the Giffords using the iPad one. That added nothing to my knowledge about Apple, and was a bit voyeuristic.

Anyway, off topic. I see AI as doing a good job here, as they mostly do.

It could be Samsung but it could also be an investment in this Toshiba LCD plant along with upfront cash order when the plant is on line. Toshiba denies this story but then they would, wouldn't they given its a deal with Apple it probably has a no announcement clause.

To start look here: http://chipdesignmag.com/sld/blog/20...oundry-at-dac/. Then do a Googgle search like this: "Samsung foundry expansion". In some of the articles you will see reference to Samsung seeking partners and such. I haven't seen Apple mentioned directly but 2 billion would go an awfully long way to installing a 28nm production line. Obviously finding the smoking gun that says that Apple and Samsung have teamed up isn't easy, so this is in part a position built on reading between the lines.

Is my conclusion right? Who knows for sure, however we do know from past experience that Apple only spent a half million each on flash and displays. Even if you increase those numbers by half there is still a lot left over for other things. My suspicion is that a big wad of cash goes Samsungs way to establish a 32/28nm line for Apples needs. It makes a lot of sense if Apple is already consuming a good portion of Samsungs foundry capacity.

As to why Samsung would want to do this. For one a partnership of sorts has benefits for both sides. Further Samsung has been reluctant to expand capacity so Apple is an incentive provider. For Apple this is good because with in reason they have the potential to use Global Foundries as a second source. So they can cover their quickly growing need for SoCs one way or the other. Apple could easily double demand for SoCs this year, probably more than double. They need the security of additional capacity.

Of course I could be all wrong here. In the end it is an educated guess, however I think Apples interest is very strong with respect to chip production.

Whatever Apple is doing with the money I'd be very surprised to find that they would invest more than 750 million in LCD fabs. Especially when they seem to have licked the iPad LCD problem.

The problem we have is with the huge sums we are talking about here. Spend 2billion on a SoC fab and you still have 1.9 billion left. That is a couple of factories right there. This is why I suspect than the money is being split over several key industries.

You're just mad because your gay bashing, on another thread, went over like a ton of bricks.

... and I went to this story to get away from that one.

Revenue is not profit. Neither is the same as cash on hand. Also, there is debt to consider.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=SSNLF.PK+Key+Statistics

The chart seem a little off to me. I have seen only the latest numbers for the CPU revenue, but that indicated that Asia Pacific was already about 12% (revenue, not CPU count) and this was up from about 8% Fiscal Q1-2010. At that rate of growth (50% "share" growth yoy), it would actually be at 18% for next year.

The amazing thing is that it is still just a tiny percentage of PC sales in the region, so this trajectory could go on for some time.

Yes - some people who read this blog are investors.

iSupply thinks its displays.

isupply has no clue what they are talking about, that company puts out information like this in hopes people who have no idea will buy their reports and are usually wrong and at best are a guess.