There are a few ways to broaden the gamut without going to more expensive LEDs. One includes a different phosphor coating in combination with cheaper blue LEDs. Color isn't as good with this method, but it's better than the current iPad Mini solution. This is about profit margins and product differentiation, not technical hurdles.
As for excess capacity for ten million LTPS 7.9" 326 ppi screens each month, why would that exist if Apple is using a different screen? Production capacity is part of product planning. Apple doesn't just look around the market and hope an extra 50 million panels are sitting unused in a warehouse someplace. No supplier is going to build empty factories and hope some manufacturer decides to use them. Product development and production planning are tightly integrated, and at least with Apple, highly secretive.
Geez, what does it take? I said "high-draw," meaning that white LEDs use too much juice, not that they're too expensive! If it was a matter of spending a few more bucks per device, they would have given you your goddamned gamut.
It was a matter of maintaining battery life, or alternatively the size of the device.
If you want to continue to delude yourself that it was a matter of a couple of dollars of margin, I feel sorry for you and I refuse to discuss it further with you.
I mean get real. Apple would risk their reputation as display quality leaders for a couple of dollars? You and others astound me with your lack of common sense. I can only conclude that you're being paid to be so obtuse.
As to your second muddled paragraph, thanks for supporting my point. There isn't LTPS capacity on Apple's level because Apple, the market leader in LCD usage for mobile, hasn't chosen to develop it at scale, as far as we know. I would say they have good reasons why they haven't. Since they've spent nearly a billion on IGZO, you can't say they're cheaping out on displays.
