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Apple Supplier's Plans Fall Through, Macs and iPads May Be Impacted

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On an earnings call on Tuesday, Japanese company Sharp announced that the planned sale of one of its LCD display factories to its majority owner Foxconn has fell through, according to Nikkei Asia. As a result, the report said Sharp plans to halt production at the facility in August, and this decision may temporarily impact Apple.

Apple-MacBook-Pro-M4-hero.jpg

If production ceases at Sharp's so-called "K2" factory in Kameyama, Japan, Taiwanese research firm TrendForce said that short-term supply of oxide LCD display panels for some MacBook and iPad models "could face disruption."

Apple is known for having excellent supply chain management, so any potential impact on MacBook and iPad shipping estimates might be limited. TrendForce estimated that Apple's current orders only make up about 16% to 17% of the factory's overall utilization, and Apple still has around six months to prepare.

Sharp has decided to wind down the factory amid increased competition.

"The plant's competitive edge once stemmed from its industry-leading oxide backplane technology, serving as a benchmark for Apple's MacBook and iPad panels," said TrendForce. "However, increasing investments from Korean and Chinese panel makers in oxide capacity steadily eroded Sharp's technological advantage."

Foxconn had initially planned to continue LCD panel production at the factory, and add new production lines to build AI servers, according to Nikkei Asia. However, the report said Foxconn backed away due to "weak LCD prices."

Regardless, Apple is in the process of upgrading its products with OLED displays. All of the latest iPhone models are equipped with OLED displays, and the past two generations of iPad Pro models are too. Over the next one to two years, the iPad mini, iPad Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac are expected to receive OLED displays too.

Article Link: Apple Supplier's Plans Fall Through, Macs and iPads May Be Impacted
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/11/sharp-factory-ceasing-production-report/
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I'm sure this will end up delaying pretty much every Apple product for another year. 🙄

The Apple TV has no screen. Please release that. And homepod mini.
 
This is the kind of development that almost no one sees coming - including all of our esteemed analysts with their newsletters.
 
"The plant's competitive edge once stemmed from its industry-leading oxide backplane technology, serving as a benchmark for Apple's MacBook and iPad panels," said TrendForce. "However, increasing investments from Korean and Chinese panel makers in oxide capacity steadily eroded Sharp's technological advantage."
Click to expand...
Sounds like Sharp was not investing to stay ahead of the competition.

Do not want Chinese-made BOE displays.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Sounds like Sharp was not investing to stay ahead of the competition.

Do not want Chinese-made BOE displays.
Click to expand...
I hear you. But it’s clear that most Japanese companies are bowing out of consumer electronics and parts for them. Note that Sony just sold half of its TV unit to China’s TCL.
 
DocMultimedia said:
I'm sure this will end up delaying pretty much every Apple product for another year. 🙄

The Apple TV has no screen. Please release that. And homepod mini.
Click to expand...
Why would that be? The reason the plant is closing is that there are big competition, and I can't see any reason why they (the competitors) don't would want to sell to Apple, it may not even be more expensive if the remaining producers are enough.
 
All the great Japanese display manufacturers are walking away including Sony who recently sold off its Trinitron line to the Chinese TV behemoth TCL.

I remember fondly about 15 years ago seeing the first Sharp LCD TVs with their “Quatron” panels that had a yellow sub pixel embedded between the RGB pixels. It was an early preview of what HDR color would eventually bring to normal 3 pixel panels today. It really made that big of a difference. People in the store would just stop and stare as they immediately saw the difference between the Quattron panel and another make next to it.

Here’s the ad for it with the great George Takei from Star Trek exclaiming with his signature “Oohh MY !!

 
A M5 Ultra MacStudio might cost more than $20k if the custom build to out allows for, let us say, 1TB ram and 24 TB SSD at Apple's customer pocket draining prices....
 
So is this the explanation for the lack of new high-end MacBook Pro models? We're really pushing into the new year. Seems less and less likely the actual models that most want, the M6 Pro and M6 Max with OLED displays, will end up coming out later this year.
 
Apple is excellent in managing supply chains and think there will not be any disruptions. Don't think there will be any delay in product announcement or shipping times due to this.
 
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Just wondering if Apple discovered that the minimum memory for AI is much more than even the meager 16GB they are touting now and all of those with less than the required new level of memory in their prior generation gear will be left standing in the dust with suddenly worthless equipment?
 
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