Apple said to have settled on supplier for tablet display
A brief report out of the Far East on Friday appears to be corroborating a trio of earlier reports in stating that Apple has tapped its current iPhone touchscreen supplier to also provide the display panels for its upcoming tablet device.
"Wintek has been selected as the panel module supplier for Apple's upcoming e-book form factor netbook product," Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes wrote in a two paragraph report that cited local notebook-related integrated circuit designers as its sources.
The report added that those IC designers are optimistic about demand for notebook-related products in the second half of this year given that a more diversified array of products are expected to come to market around that time.
Word of Wintek's role as the panel supplier for the much rumored tablet was first reported by the Chinese-language Commercial Times during the second week of March. Almost immediately, the Dow Jones chimed in with its own report supporting those claims but adding that the panels would measure "between 9.7-inches and 10-inches."
For its part, mainstream media outlet Reuters would enter the mix no more than 24-hours later, citing its own source who said the panels would measure exactly 10-inches diagonally and that Apple would "take third-quarter delivery" of the parts.
Just this week, Taiwan's National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NFITU) and other area labor groups protested in front of Apple's Taipei offices in a plea for the company to step in and address controversial labor practices on the part of Wintek.
The component supplier reportedly fired 600 workers in December without giving advance notice while simultaneously cutting the pay of remaining workers and forcing them to work unpaid overtime to fulfill "rush" orders.
"Wintek has been selected as the panel module supplier for Apple's upcoming e-book form factor netbook product," Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes wrote in a two paragraph report that cited local notebook-related integrated circuit designers as its sources.
The report added that those IC designers are optimistic about demand for notebook-related products in the second half of this year given that a more diversified array of products are expected to come to market around that time.
Word of Wintek's role as the panel supplier for the much rumored tablet was first reported by the Chinese-language Commercial Times during the second week of March. Almost immediately, the Dow Jones chimed in with its own report supporting those claims but adding that the panels would measure "between 9.7-inches and 10-inches."
For its part, mainstream media outlet Reuters would enter the mix no more than 24-hours later, citing its own source who said the panels would measure exactly 10-inches diagonally and that Apple would "take third-quarter delivery" of the parts.
Just this week, Taiwan's National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NFITU) and other area labor groups protested in front of Apple's Taipei offices in a plea for the company to step in and address controversial labor practices on the part of Wintek.
The component supplier reportedly fired 600 workers in December without giving advance notice while simultaneously cutting the pay of remaining workers and forcing them to work unpaid overtime to fulfill "rush" orders.
Comments
I still don?t see a retail market for a tablet-only device and haven?t heard of a good business model for it. If someone can wow me, I?m all ears.
The tablet seems more and more likely, but Ireland won?t be happy with the reports of exactly 10? when his mockups have 10.1?.
I still don?t see a retail market for a tablet-only device and haven?t heard of a good business model for it. If someone can wow me, I?m all ears.
There isn't one, thats why I don't believe this rumor at all. Apple typically has waited for a defined market to be lacking a device and attacks it. The tablet market is non-existent right now.
The tablet seems more and more likely, but Ireland won?t be happy with the reports of exactly 10? when his mockups have 10.1?.
I still don?t see a retail market for a tablet-only device and haven?t heard of a good business model for it. If someone can wow me, I?m all ears.
I don't see consumers clamoring for such a device either. The hue and cry here at AI is different than elsewhere. If a color e-ink style device can be sold by Apple (subsidized by magazine and newspaper companies) for $100-200 and with a Whispernet (free to the user) Apple Store accessibility, we might have something worth talking about.
There isn't one, thats why I don't believe this rumor
I agree, but even if I'm wrong I won't be buying any Wintek-produced product until they clean up their work practices. Apple need to address this problem immediately.
There isn't one, thats why I don't believe this rumor at all. Apple typically has waited for a defined market to be lacking a device and attacks it. The tablet market is non-existent right now.
I don't see consumers clamoring for such a device either. The hue and cry here at AI is different than elsewhere. If a color e-ink style device can be sold by Apple (subsidized by magazine and newspaper companies) for $100-200 and with a Whispernet (free to the user) Apple Store accessibility, we might have something worth talking about.
If Apple can find a market for a tablet then there is probably one, but I think that if there is a tablet device it will be a 10? netbook-like device with a swivel screen that can also double as a tablet. That would make it a very expensive netbook and may appeal to both groups despite the cost. Seems unlikely, but If there is a tablet I think that is way it would have to be.
Color e-Ink would be great. That is a device I would love to have if the display was the size of a standard magazine and with a high enough resolution and colours to literally replace magazines, but that is for another thread when that finally becomes a semi-realistic rumour.
I agree, but even if I'm wrong I won't be buying any Wintek-produced product until they clean up their work practices. Apple need to address this problem immediately.
Totally agree. Al Gore on the Board of Directors should have some clout stopping this. Human rights should be a top priority in manufacturing Apple products even more so than delivering environmental friendly products. Haven't we learned anything from Kathy Lee Gifford? Cheap labor does not usually come with a good human rights policy.
I agree, but even if I'm wrong I won't be buying any Wintek-produced product until they clean up their work practices. Apple need to address this problem immediately.
If a company stated that they didn?t produce things in China at all, but in the US I?d support that completely, but the reality is that there are so many different parts produced in so many different parts of the world with less than adequate labour laws that there is no way for us to know what items to boycott. Apple has done well with their ?green" goal but need to work on human rights. The damn Green Peace hippies care more about a fraken wood slug than they do a human being.
I agree, but even if I'm wrong I won't be buying any Wintek-produced product until they clean up their work practices. Apple need to address this problem immediately.
What's the deal with Wintek and 'work practices?'
If a company stated that they didn?t produce things in China at all, but in the US I?d support that completely, but the reality is that there are so many different parts produced in so many different parts of the world with less than adequate labour laws that there is no way for us to know what items to boycott. Apple has done well with their ?green" goal but need to work on human rights. The damn Green Peace hippies care more about a fraken wood slug than they do a human being.
And yet Apple is going into WalMArt - one of the biggest creators of slave labor products in the world.
What's the deal with Wintek and 'work practices?'
The previous article just talked about how Wintek treats their employees like stool and here Apple is rewarding them with a big contract.
Business can be ruthless and unfair, just like life i suppose.
And yet Apple is going into WalMArt - one of the biggest creators of slave labor products in the world.
hey Hey HEY! Where else can I get a pair of jeans for $6? MAKE THEM MY SELF? ARE U NUTS?
The tablet seems more and more likely, but Ireland won?t be happy with the reports of exactly 10? when his mockups have 10.1?.
I still don?t see a retail market for a tablet-only device and haven?t heard of a good business model for it. If someone can wow me, I?m all ears.
I don't see it either. Tablet like PC's have been out before and there's still no major market for this. I guess this is Apple's answer to the netbook. I personally think its just a waste of time. Let these netbook suppliers enjoy their short moment in the sun. This netbook thing IMO is just a fad that will die off soon.
that being said, the only reason for apple to introduce a portable device like this at this time is to temporarily pump up their stock.
Haven't we learned anything from Kathy Lee? Cheap labor does not usually come with a good human rights policy.
Have we? Didn't Nike and Michael Jordan come under fire years ago about cheap labor? And didn't Steve Jobs refer to Nike as an example of a great "brand name" at Macworld when he returned to Apple?
I don't think anyone cares so long as they get what they want at a discount. I'm not saying that's right, but unless you have to go to work in a place like that, it's easy to turn a blind eye to it.
A better homescreen with the ability to pull out certain things like mail/calendars/im chats/live weather etc (whatever is most important to you, like personalised homepages on google or Yahoo, but pulling data from your apps as well as the web) would be useful. And to top the thing off, integration into "back to my mac" for running and displaying more intense apps on your home PC remotely. It would be easy to implement a toggle to the multitouch to emulate using a finger as a mouse, or turning a portion of the screen into a standard trackpad for those paradigms that won't work on iphone OS (mouse-over hovers etc).
Add in full bluetooth support for keyboards and mice etc and you have a device I would buy tomorrow. I don't need a full power tablet running Mac OSX slowly, as I already have a macbook which is portable enough. My ideal setup would be an iMac or Mini setup at home that serves as my main datastore containing all my Mac OS apps and data, and a tablet running iphone OS as described above that could easily "tap in" to the home system to present apps, or pull data. Port some of the common apps (iLife and iWork) to mobile versions running direct on Iphone OS (providing the most common functions rather than attempting to do it all), but loading and saving documents straight of my home PC? Yes please.
One thing I wouldn't want is for it to be marketed as a phone device, this is the only area where the model breaks down. I'd still want a phone I can put in my pocket, but the tablet still needs the relevant chippery to allow it to use 3G or whatever replaces it, meaning the temptation to turn it into a phone also might be too great as it will already have the hardware, so why not? Unless there is some clever way of getting is to share a number with my iphone, and allow me to choose which device to route the call to it would just be confusing.
Have we? Didn't Nike and Michael Jordan come under fire years ago about cheap labor? And didn't Steve Jobs refer to Nike as an example of a great "brand name" at Macworld when he returned to Apple?
I don't think anyone cares so long as they get what they want at a discount. I'm not saying that's right, but unless you have to go to work in a place like that, it's easy to turn a blind eye to it.
If the labour is so cheap, why are the products so expensive??
Just kidding, just kidding!
Or am I?
What's the deal with Wintek and 'work practices?'
See last two paras of article.
If a company stated that they didn?t produce things in China at all, but in the US I?d support that completely, but the reality is that there are so many different parts produced in so many different parts of the world with less than adequate labour laws that there is no way for us to know what items to boycott. Apple has done well with their ?green" goal but need to work on human rights. The damn Green Peace hippies care more about a fraken wood slug than they do a human being.
The damn Green Peace hippies don't care about the slug either - they care about controling your life and returning to the 14th century (something they have in common with the People of Peace).
As for AAPL's product - what about a smaller MacBook Air which would also fit the quoted supplier items?