Toshiba and Apple are reportedly working together on a brand new manufacturing plant in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture, specifically to build “low-temperature polysilicon LCD panels,” to be used in Apple’s iPhones. Toshiba will spend about $1.9 billion on the project, which is scheduled to start building in a month or so, and be done in time to start production by the end of next year. Toshiba already makes some 8.55 million units in its current manufacturing plant, but that production is supposed to double with this new facility.
We’ve posted before about the incredible scale of Apple’s production process, and even with all of these plants churning out parts and units, Apple is only barely able to keep up with demand. In some places it’s still not even able to keep up. The other benefit is that the more of its production process Apple moves under its own purview, the more of an advantage it can have against competitors, some of which use the same manufacturers and distributors that Apple uses right now. The more plants Apple invests in, the more unique production locations it will be able to take advantage of later on.
[via 9to5Mac]
Toshiba and Apple working together on a display manufacturing plant originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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