By Clare Jim and Reiji Murai
TAIPEI/TOKYO, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Apple Inc will be
unable to widely roll out a new version of the iPad Mini with a
high-resolution “retina” display this month, people who work in
the company’s supply chain said, leaving the gadget without the
sharper screen found on rival tablets from Google Inc
and Amazon.com Inc.
Apple’s supply chain is only now gearing up to make retina
displays for the iPad Mini, which means the gadgets could be
available in only limited quantities this year, if at all, and
the company may miss the chance to cash in on the year-end
holiday shopping season, the sources said.
Cupertino, California-based Apple has come under pressure to
preserve market share and bolster sales against rivals that are
rapidly raising specifications and lowering prices.
It remains unclear exactly what new features and
modifications could find their way into the next iPad Mini,
which the sources said was due to be unveiled this month.
But higher-resolution screens and cameras, as well as
thinner and lighter dimensions, are among the improvements users
have come to expect with updated smartphones and tablets.
“If they don’t put in retina … there will be howls,” said
Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester.
Apple declined to comment about any product launches and the
sources at companies in Apple’s supply chain declined to be
identified due to the confidentiality of the matter.
DISPLAY DISAPPOINTMENT
Apple defines retina display as resolution that is detailed
enough that the human eye can’t detect pixelation.
The feature is available on some full-sized iPads, and
similar resolutions are available on iPad Mini competitors such
as Google’s Nexus 7, as well as Amazon’s seven-inch Kindle Fire
HDX due to go on sale this month.
The reason behind the delays in manufacturing the retina
display screens for the iPad Mini were unclear. One source at a
supplier said there were delays in Apple’s certification of
panel producers, which were given strict power-saving
requirements.
LG Display Co Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s
display unit and Sharp Corp all vied to
manufacture the panels, supply chain sources said.
The three display makers declined to comment.
Given the time required to ramp up screen production, a
retina display-equipped iPad Mini would not be available in
large volumes until early next year, the sources said.
The sources expected Apple to either wait until early next
year for a full-fledged launch of a retina display iPad Mini, or
to make a retina version only available in limited quantities
before the end of the year.
Apple has also told suppliers to reduce costs, two of the
sources said, with one person saying the U.S. firm is looking at
rolling out an iPad Mini with a smaller 8 gigabytes of memory.
Less memory may allow Apple to lower the price of the Mini
to boost sales in emerging markets like China where cheaper
tablets, many of them running Google’s Android operating system,
are gaining market share.
“Right now the iPad Mini is more expensive than everyone
else in the 7- to 8-inch tablet segment,” said Arthur Liao, an
analyst for Fubon Securities in Taipei. “If it could reduce its
price by even just $50, it would appeal to more consumers.”
The iPad’s total market share almost halved to 32.5 percent
in the second quarter from a year ago, while Android devices,
including Samsung’s Galaxy series, gained nearly a quarter to
62.6 percent, a survey by tech research company IDC showed.
Amazon’s new 7-inch Kindle Fire is priced from $229 for 16GB
wifi-only models, while Google’s second-generation Nexus 7
offers a similar screen size and storage capacity at the same
price. By comparison, the cheapest model in Apple’s current
7.9-inch iPad Mini lineup with 16GB storage size starts at $329.
Anyone expecting Apple to dramatically cut prices is likely
to be disappointed, analysts said, pointing to the
higher-than-expected price tag for the iPhone 5C unveiled this
month.
“Don’t expect the prices to be significantly lower,” said
one of the sources. “Even though Apple aims to cut down on
component costs, it still ends up around the same as the current
Mini because the new Mini will have upgraded specifications.”
