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Apple Seeking to Boost iPhone Display Quality by Acquiring Chip Firm Renesas SP Drivers

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple is in talks with chipmaker Renesas Electronics over the potential acquisition of a unit that creates chips for smartphone displays, reports Japanese business site Nikkei. The chips, which are already used in the iPhone's liquid crystal displays, improve both image sharpness and battery life.

iphone_5s_5c.jpg
Renesas SP Drivers, the division Apple is aiming to purchase, is a leading producer of drivers and controllers for small LCDs. The company is a joint venture between Renesas, Sharp, and Powerchip, with Apple offering 50 billion yen or $479 million for Renesas' 55 percent stake in the company. Following the transaction, Sharp is also expected to sell its 25 percent of shares in Renesas SP to Apple, while Powerchip will retain 20 percent.
Renesas SP is the world's leading producer of drivers and controllers for small and midsize LCDs, with a market share of around one-third. These chips determine a display's quality and performance as well as a phone's overall energy efficiency - they are said to account for around 10% of battery usage.
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Renesas' 240 employees are expected to stay with Apple and the company is aiming to complete the transaction by the summer.

In recent years Apple has taken a greater interest in controlling its own production supplies and core technologies, signing a deal with GT Advanced that will provide it with massive quantities of sapphire and purchasing several chip firms in the past, including P.A. Semi and Passif Semiconductor.

Update 12:28 PM PT: Renesas has issued a statement on the potential acquisition, neither confirming nor denying Apple's interest.
There were media reports regarding Renesas SP Drivers, which were published in certain media.The reports were not based on announcement of Renesas and Renesas SP Drivers' announcement and they cannot be confirmed or regarded as fact at this time.
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Article Link: Apple Seeking to Boost iPhone Display Quality by Acquiring Chip Firm Renesas SP Drivers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/01/apple-acquiring-renasas-sp-drivers/
pgiguere1

pgiguere1

macrumors 68020
May 28, 2009
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Montreal, Canada
Apple spending $479 million on a (partial) acquisition? That's a lot for them.

According to the data available on Wikipedia, that would be their biggest acquisition spending ever, surpassing even NeXT in 1997 (if you don't correct for inflation, anyway).
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

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Oct 29, 2007
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pgiguere1 said:
Apple spending $479 million on a (partial) acquisition? That's a lot for them.
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Close to $750 million after they pay off Sharp too. But Apple produces tens of millions of products that use these chips every year. Those lack of royalties would add up. They could also build up superior technology over time and leverage that expertise against market competitors.
 
P

pedromcm.pm

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2014
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Bigger screen

I seriously believe that when Apple releases another iPhone line with a bigger screen (like on iPods, iPads and Macs) it will quickly become (by a huge margin) their biggest profit generator.

If a crapy company like Samsung that does not design their best SoC (they make that crap called exynos), neither makes their OS and services, and the actual phone has similar to worse screen, slower performance, takes worst photos and videos, ugly design, way less support and they still price it the same, Apple can easily sell millions of 5" iPhones starting from 299 on contract.

Imagine the battery life.

now, if they drop that pathetic 16gb option and 1gb of ram that already bottlenecks iOS 7 devices...
 
IJ Reilly

IJ Reilly

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Jul 16, 2002
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Apparently Renesas has been trying to unload their investment in this joint venture for a couple of months now, with one of the interested buyers said to be Powerchip. It seems Apple outbid them for the shares held by Renesas and Sharp. Since Apple will not own the entire company it might be overstating the case to say that they are taking it over. Apple will own a controlling interest, but technically it will remain a joint venture.
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

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Oct 29, 2007
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VanillaCracker said:
This sounds like IGZO to me :D
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IGZO refers to the type of transistors used in the display. This article is about physical chips that drive the display and dictate what it shows. iPhone displays use LTPS, which is superior to IGZO for power consumption, but more expensive to manufacture.
 
O

odedia

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2005
1,043
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Improve the iPad mini display please. I bought one and returned it in 24 hours. I had to-it was sitting next to an iPad Air and results were terrible in comparison.
 
kdarling

kdarling

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First university coding class = 47 years ago
Vanilla35

Vanilla35

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Apr 11, 2013
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chrmjenkins said:
IGZO refers to the type of transistors used in the display. This article is about physical chips that drive the display and dictate what it shows. iPhone displays use LTPS, which is superior to IGZO for power consumption, but more expensive to manufacture.
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Thanks for sharing. I'd forgotten that was the current state of affairs haha
 
P

pedromcm.pm

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2014
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Porto, Portugal
kdarling said:
The Samsung S5 display was recently rated "The Best Smartphone Display Ever", with the most accurate color display ever measured for a phone or tablet.

http://bgr.com/2014/03/31/samsung-galaxy-s5-display-quality/

http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S5_ShootOut_1.htm
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I don't know why you are so quick to defend anything samsung, but every single display on their flagship has been seen as worse than the one that they use on the iPhone. Maybe finally the s5 brings something better, but my point still stands.
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
odedia said:
Improve the iPad mini display please. I bought one and returned it in 24 hours. I had to-it was sitting next to an iPad Air and results were terrible in comparison.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The rMini display is pretty cr@ppy, unlike that of other iDevices. It should be improved ASAP.
 
T

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
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Better iPhone display ?

My God,,, isn't Retina (Apple's term) enough ? I mean dot are dot but how high do you really wanna go before you get to the stage, "I can no longer look at that hideous screen... its too high res.."

oh, i get it, its a race..... Who can have the best display in phone technology..

While Apple gets their users confident with "We are just out to make the best products." That's a mus-nomor, since the best is always going to be the latest.

I mean, you wouldn't expect the best display on a 3gs would you ?
 
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