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All signs point to the fact that Sharp is one of the manufacturers of the next iPhone display. In fact, the phone might even use Sharp’s new IGZO technology. But if Wall Street Journal’s reports that Sharp has halted production of the displays due to problems are true, you might wanna be among the first to preorder the iPhone 5 (or next iPhone, or iPhone 6, or whatever), as supply could be short when it first releases.
It shouldn’t hold up the release of the phone however, as WSJ points out there are two other manufacturers.
Sharp is one of the three suppliers of LCD panels for the next iPhone. The other two suppliers-Japan Display Inc. and South Korea’s LG Display Co. -have already started shipping the screens to Apple, according to other people familiar with the situation.
Sharp did the same thing with the iPad earlier this year and it mostly worked out OK, but the iPhone tends to be a hotter item, so the likelihood of a shortage is greater. The other option is just to wait a few months to make sure all the manufacturing kinks are worked out of these devices altogether. [WSJ]
Hmmm, launch a product that you already know will sell well on the back of a rumour of possible shortage. In recent years the size of hysterical crowds awaiting the release of the latest iPhone have reduced as the number of outlets through which they are available has grown. Throw a little availability scare into the mix and people will most likely converge on the Apple stores again.
I am not saying Apple are behind this rumour, or even that it’s false, just that it would serve them.
Tech companies have been doing this for donkey’s years.
The best one I can remember was fed to me while I was at Argos. It was some nonsense about a shipment of Sony PS2s being stuck in the Suez Canal in the run-up to Christmas as trained dolphins had discovered unexploded WWII Depth Charges in the Shipping lane.
“The Nazis from the dark side of the moon stole my first shipment of iPhone 5′s I swear!”