AU Optronics (AUO), is currently one of the suppliers for the LCD display on the 7.9″ iPad mini. Apple faced shortage of iPad mini supply last quarter because of LCD manufacturing delays caused by AUO. But with scaled up operations and faster manufacturing AUO is apple to meet with current demands of iPad mini displays. It is reported that the next generation iPad mini will use oxide based TFT technology to create the retina display instead of typical amorphous Silicon TFT used in current generation of iPad mini. The oxide based LCDs seem to save more power compare to the amorphous silicon LCDs which is one of the reasons why Apple will be opting for them. With the current manufacturing setup that AUO possesses, it will not be able to manufacture the oxide based TFT LCD display in such a large scale as to meet with Apple’s demand.
Digitime’s sources claim that Apple will instead be opting for Sharp displays instead of AUO for now and LG will remain as the primary source for Retina LCD displays to be installed in the next generation iPad minis. The only concern seems to be the quality of displays LG will be shipping in to the iPad mini, with the recent ghost image issue spotted with the retina displays of the 15″ Retina MacBook Pro the same issue might be a concern with retina displays of iPad mini as well if LG fails to rectify the problem soon.
This seems to be a more confirming news that no matter what, Apple will distance itself away from Samsung and try to develop other supplier profiles over a period of time. Hope Apple will be able to spot viable alternatives for all the components that it currently procures from Samsung without loss in quality.