Toshiba and Apple Building New Factory for iPhone LCDs

[Wiley John Wright]

Toshiba Corp has announced plans to build a new LCD manufacturing plant for the production of small LCD monitors that will be used in portable devices. The new plant will cost Toshiba approximately 100 billion yen or $1.19 billion. This new plant will reportedly supply Apple with LCD monitors for future iPhone models.

Toshiba plans on building the plant early next year and for production of new LCD screens to start by the second half of 2011. The plant will manufacture low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels that are ideal for displaying high-resolution images. These new screens will presumably be Retina displays or similar and find there way into the next generation iPhone.

Currently, Toshiba manufactures these polysilicon LCD panels at another plant, but this facility is only capable of producing 8.55 million units a month. The new facility will double this amount when it opens next year. As an investor in this new manufacturing plant, Apple is sure to be the first to reap the rewards of this new factory.

Demand for Apple products is so high right now that factories manufacturing parts for them are currently running at capacity. This new facility should help to ease the strain on the supply chain when it is up and running at full capacity sometime next year.

Source: MacRumors

[sziklassy]

Another year without AMOLED?

[politicalslug]

Another year without AMOLED?

If Apple is investing this heavily in LCD technology you can bet it'll be a few years, at least, before the iPhone goes down the LED road.

[swifty7]

at this rate I think Apple will never invest in samoled tech...same reason no company has announced any plans for large samoled hdtv's. I guess the tech is too expensive for these companies to invest with the exception of few here and there.

[grimball]

I hope they build this facility in loUiSiAna!

[klouud]

Another year without AMOLED?

Remember, the Galaxy S's SAMOLED has strengths and weaknesses. Compared to the iPhone 4's retina display it is about equal in that the Retina display does things better and the SAMOLED does things better.

If that makes any sense...

After doing some research (and seriously considering jumping to the Android ship) I must honestly say that the iPhone 4 as all of the strengths in the places that I want - and fulfills my expectations of an all-in-one/smartphone device.

I'm happy with the hardware and software of the i4 ---- after a jailbreak.

tim

[mvhurlburt]

SAMOLED have great color, I was looking at a galaxy s the other day and was amazed at how vibrant the colors were! The again the retina display at full brightness is pretty damn vibrant itself. Also the downside vs IPS LCD is that, at least in the case of the "retina" display, provides much crisper detail and pushed out higher resolutions faster though I bet we won't see a change in res for a few generations to avoid fragmentation or at least mitigate it. By then the lower res(3GS - ) will be phased out!

[vedavis]

So much for a US facility...the plant will be in Ishikawa, Japan.

[DRFP]

Remember, the Galaxy S's SAMOLED has strengths and weaknesses. Compared to the iPhone 4's retina display it is about equal in that the Retina display does things better and the SAMOLED does things better.

If that makes any sense...

After doing some research (and seriously considering jumping to the Android ship) I must honestly say that the iPhone 4 as all of the strengths in the places that I want - and fulfills my expectations of an all-in-one/smartphone device.

I'm happy with the hardware and software of the i4 ---- after a jailbreak.

tim

Until the newest Android models the platform seemed doomed, phones with expandable memory but native 512mb........compared to 8GB and up to 32GB Iphones as well as features like the display but new life has been pumped into Android, finally the short sited manufacturers have wakened up to models like the Captivate with 16gb internal, 1ghz processor and a display to rival the Iphone 4...... the Android market only has 30,000 apps to Iphones 200,000 and counting but its better then BB. Both my sons just bought Captivates this month, and they are impressive, they have the function and apps they want.

I see the tide changing, Apple has competition but Samsung lacks a good program like Iphone and Itunes and At&t sucks at helping to promote anything well like the software needed for both.

I had to find two PC programs for Android to back up and put apps on the phone by internet. It lacks Itunes polish but functional

[athleticswimmer]

Hopefully the "new" LCD screen is comparable or even surpasses the Retina/AMOLED display. Because waiting that long for a nice screen like the iphone 4 has is gonna take some effort, i'm really looking forward to buying the new ipad 2.

[DRFP]

Hopefully the "new" LCD screen is comparable or even surpasses the Retina/AMOLED display. Because waiting that long for a nice screen like the iphone 4 has is gonna take some effort, i'm really looking forward to buying the new ipad 2.

Does not AMOLED save energy? Iphones should be all the green they can be IMHO

[Tfost]

Cool

[wolverinemarky]

cool so hopefully wont be a 3 week wait for iphones next generation

[whereswaldo]

Second half of 2011? Thats a lifetime in iPhone years

[MetallicaFan1991]

Cmon Apple just use SAMOLED, it's the best type of screen out for a mobile phone, at least use OLED then! I don't want LCD, after seeing the Galaxy S and LED TV's, LCD sucks.

SAMOLED is the reason why the Samsung Galaxy S has such a nice screen, Nokia N8 used AMOLED too. The resolution of the Galaxy S is pretty high as well so iPhone's resolution doesn't look much better.

[Rob2G]

Another year without AMOLED?

its sooo stupid I keep hoping, just to be let down.

[CynicalDriver]

Honestly! If you need something better than Retina, buy a TV and carry that around with you.

iPhone 4's Retina display is excellent and will do just fine. It's already a higher resolution than our eyes can detect, what more do you want?

I have seen these AMOLED screens, and while they are a bit more vibrant, they are MUCH harder to see in direct sunlight.