A new report out of Taiwan claims that Apple has cornered much of the market for touch panel components -- nearly 60 percent. with the intention of using them to meet internal goals of shipping 40 million iPads in 2011.
MacRumors is reporting on the latest iPad rumors from Taiwan, where DigiTimes claims that Apple has gone on a spending spree for touch screen panel components. In order to fill Cupertino’s goal of shipping 40 million iPads this year, Apple has “secured nearly 60 percent of the global touch panel capacity” for the entire year.
“Sources from tablet PC makers also pointed out that the component shortage is causing their shipment volumes to be unable to catch up with their orders, especially for second-tier players,” DigiTimes reports. “Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard (HP) also competing for related components, second-tier players are already out of the game, the sources noted.”
The report doesn’t elaborate on who the “second-tier players” might be, but budget Android-based tablets released by companies such as France-based Archos have had trouble keeping up with orders for the varying sizes of their product since being released late last year.
Apple COO Tim Cook revealed during the company’s last quarterly report that the company had invested $3.9 billion into three companies “in order to guarantee long-term supply of a certain component,” but refused to reveal what it might be. Leading speculation claims that the investment was spent on LCD touch screen panels, and if true, would likely support DigiTimes’ latest report.
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