iOS Devices

According to a report by the sometimes spotty (ahem removable battery?!) Korean Times (via DL), Samsung will soon begin producing iPad screens.  This follows news this morning that Wintek may or may not be having issues with production yields on their iPad touch screen sensors.

“Samsung Electronics has won a contract worth $240 million from Apple to supply 3 million LCD panels used in the iPads,” a high-ranking industry representative told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified. “The most expensive component in the iPad is the display and touch-screen interface that costs $80 for all models. The 9.7-inch display is more than twice the size of the iPhone 3GS screen and costs five times as much,” he said.

LG, who has a $500 million/ multi-year display deal with Apple, is already building 10 million iPad displays according to the report, which would put the total order for displays at 13 million.  That is a lot of iPads.

If true, it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the capabilities of the two screens.  There was some controversy when Apple changed the quality of the screens in its 13-inch Unibody MacBooks last year.

The Korea Times also states that:

Separately, Samsung Mobile Display ? a flat-screen joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI ? has been in deep talks to supply its LCD panels for Apple’s upcoming 4G iPhones and iPads, a company executive told the newspaper. “As far as I know, Apple will use the LCD panels for its next iPhone models. We are receiving related orders from Apple,” the executive said, without elaborating further.

The same Korean Times said last year that the 4G iPhone would utilize an OLED display.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZCWO9FiZac&w=700&h=400]

http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf

Apple is abandoning its plans for TV subscriptions (for now) but may have some $.99 television shows for the iPad’s launch according to an updated report by the Wall Street Journal.

Apple has narrowed the device’s scope. It has put on hold its idea to offer TV subscriptions that would be viewable through the iPad, because few media companies were interested. Instead, Apple is discussing dropping the price of TV shows to 99 cents from the $1.99 and $2.99 charged for most shows on its iTunes store, said people familiar with the situation. Apple hasn’t yet reached a deal with many major TV producers on the price cut, these people said.

The WSJ reports that although most eBooks will be ready at launch, Magazines and TV are a harder nut to crack…

People familiar with the matter have said Apple is trying to allay concerns by arguing that lower pricing on iTunes could help create a new market. These people said they still believe Apple may reach deals with some to offer 99-cent shows by the time the iPad ships. It’s also possible TV companies could offer access to their shows on the iPad through applications that would stream the videos, rather than selling them through iTunes. But streaming is often limited by a tangle of licenses between producers and TV networks. The iPad platform could also pose technical hurdles.

Which leads to everyone’s favorite topic: Adobe’s Flash:

Some publishers and TV executives are concerned the iPad doesn’t support Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash video technology, which many publishers use to showcase their multimedia content and is also an underlying technology of online ads.

I’m sure no one will take issue with that last statement.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZCWO9FiZac&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

China Mobile is itching to get their hands on the  iPhone according to the FT (sub. req.) today.  

The head of China Mobile has called on Apple to include Beijing’s home-grown standard for third-generation mobile services in the next generation of the iPhone, underscoring the growing pressures on the world’s largest mobile operator to attract 3G subscribers.  The request comes amid fears that China Mobile risks falling behind rivals China Telecom and China Unicom – the only telecom operator in the country to have a distribution deal with Apple for the iPhone – in signing up subscribers. Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile chairman and chief executive, said at the group’s annual results yesterday that “including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do – RIM is doing it”. But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.

China Mobile has over half a billion subscribers (almost double the US population) and Apple had already made the concession of taking out Wifi (only to put it back in) for China so they might have a shot.   Also, Apple is hot for China. 

Apple, however, seems to be loyal to its carrier partners no matter how lucrative building devices with different radios for competing carriers might be

Businessweek reports today that an elite group of developers have received iPads to test their applications on, however, these iPads must be kept tethered to a fixed object and in rooms with blacked-out windows.

Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad. To ensure that it can’t be removed, the iPad must also remain tethered to a fixed object, said the people, who asked not to be named because their plans for the iPad have not been made public. Apple won’t send out an iPad until potential partners send photographic evidence that they’ve complied.

Our immediate reaction to this is: What does Apple want to hide at this point?  Haven’t we seen the iPad in its final form from a hardware perspective?  From a software perspective, what is so interesting that they need developers to hide it?  This level of secrecy on something already announced piques our interest.

The WSJ is one of the companies who has the iPad under lock and key as outed by Rupert Murdoch himself…among other things, though they’d be an unlikely source for a Bloomberg leak.

Digitimes gives fair and balanced coverage of possible iPad delays by first quoting Liberty Times as saying Wintek’s display panels’ low yield rates are hampering iPad production, a fact that has been discussed before.

Taiwan-based touch panel supplier Wintek has been blamed for a delay of Apple’s iPad shipments, according to a Chinese-language report on Liberty Times. The report claimed that Wintek is facing a manufacturing bottleneck in its touch panel production, and its low yield rate for touch panels has hampered its shipments to Apple.

But on the flip side of the coin, Digitimes reports that Wintek has reported to the TSE that all of its operations have been running in-line with its plans.

Wintek, in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) today, said that all of its operations have been running in line with its plans, and it declined to comment on individual clients or particular orders.

We’ll see in coming weeks how well Apple is able to meet demand, which already appears to be pretty high.

According to a source of Silicon Alley Insider, Steve Jobs had the following bookmarks on his iPad for the demonstration for the Wall Street Journal last month:

“Well, he has Engadget, Gizmodo, the New York Times tech section, and the Wall Street Journal bookmarked.”

He had other sites bookmarked but those were the only ones the source remembered.  We know what you are thinking…  What about 9to5mac?!  

The WSJ chimes in with some frustratingly vague information today.  Besides the fact that Apple is scrambling to get more content onto the iPad (whole Internet isn’t enough?), we got some numbers predictions from someone who knows someone:

Apple has sold hundreds of thousands of the device, say people familiar with the matter. One of these people said Apple could sell more iPads in its first three months than it sold iPhones in the three months after the smart phone’s debut.

As a point of reference, Apple sold its first 1 million iPhones in the first 74 days.

The New York Times last night revealed that Google, in partnership with device manufacturer Sony and peripherals manufacturer Logitech, were working on a ‘GoogleTV’.

Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like and probably inevitable for the company that knows no bounds in their reach for the digital consumer.

But are there chairs being thrown in Cupertino? Perhaps, but they’ve had it coming. AppleTV could’ve been so much more than it is. Apple could own this market, yet they’ve let all matter of competitors come in and take some space, including Boxee which rode to prominence hacked into an AppleTV.

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Today, Apple has released the anticipated iPad camera kit to the online store. Ever since Apple launched iPad pre-orders people have been wondering where the kit is. Today, the kit is no longer missing in action as available for $PRICE PUT HERE. Here’s the link to the store page. 

“T-Mobile USA is hoping to start selling the popular smartphone later this year or next year.” (Financial Times account login required)

Update: “Hopes”.  Yeah, who doesn’t.

Right now the online Apple Store’s list of new products is showing a placeholder for an unknown product. The list shows the term “not defined.” When you click the link you are taken to Apple’s 404 not found page. This placeholder is right between different iPad accessories so presumably Apple is updating the store to carry the iPad Camera kit which is currently M.I.A.

We’ll update the if/when we get confirmation.

Update: Store was updated without anything new

Patently Apple today details a new social networking application called ‘iGroups’ that, in a nutshell, allows members of a group attending an event to stay in communication, including using GPS coordinates and tokens to exchange encrypted information.  This might be one of the reasons we don’t see Google’s Latitude application on our iPhones.

It is also interesting to note, as TechCrunch did last night, that Apple is highlighting location based services on the heels of SXSW.

Oh, and there is that pesky center-mounted camera we keep seeing.

HTC issued via press release a statement of their feelings on Apple’s legal actions.  It doesn’t really address any of the issues and is a pretty broad statement with little in the way of specific Apple concerns.  Just a timeline of their accomplishments.

They also don’t do themselves any favors by showing a picture of their first Pocket PC Phone 2002 Edition.  I had one of these on T-mobile.  Man, was that thing horrible.  

Full press release below:

HTC Disagrees with Apple’s Actions

SEATTLE, March 18 /PRNewswire/ — HTC Corporation today outlined its disagreement with Apple’s legal actions and reiterated its commitment to creating a portfolio of innovative smartphones that gives consumers a variety of choices. Founded in 1997 with a passion for innovation and a vision for how smartphones would change people’s lives, HTC has continually driven this vision by consistently introducing award-winning smartphones with U.S. mobile operators.

“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA(i) and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition(ii), our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

The industry has recognized HTC’s contributions through a variety of awards including Fast Company’s 2010 Top 50 Most Innovative Companies and MIT Technology Review’s 2010 50 Most Innovative Companies. The GSMA also recently awarded the HTC Hero as the “Best Phone of 2009.” Some of HTC’s technology firsts include:

• First Windows PDA (1998)
• First Windows Phone (June 2002)
• First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005)
• First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007)
• First Google Android smartphone (October 2008)
• First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008)

In 2009, HTC launched its branded user experience, HTC Sense. HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience was fundamentally based on listening and observing how people live and communicate.

“HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. “It is through these relationships that we have been able to deliver the world’s most diverse series of smartphones to an even more diverse group of people around the world, recognizing that customers have very different needs.”

For more information on HTC’s history of innovation, please visit: www.htc.com/history.

About HTC

HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

(i) The O2 XDA by HTC was the first 3.5-inch color touch screen smartphone in the world in 2002.

(ii) The T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition by HTC was the first 3.5-inch color touch screen smartphone in the United Statesin 2002.

SOURCE HTC Corporation

You know the drill – we’ll report back with any “abnormalities”.