Apple hasn’t said when the iPad 3 will ship, or even what features it will have, but that hasn’t stopped industry insiders from claiming the Cupertino-based company is already bringing additional parts suppliers onboard.
Apparently Apple will be sourcing at least some iPad 3 parts from suppliers based in Taiwan as a move to help keep costs down to better compete with competing tablet devices that are expected to hit store shelves later this year, according to DigiTimes. Despite that claim, however, Apple is currently beating most of the companies trying to compete in the tablet space both on price and performance.
Unnamed industry sources said Novatek Microelectronics, Richtek Technology, Capella Microsystems, and Integrated Memory Logic (iML) will all be supplying iPad 3 components. Novatek is apparently providing Apple with LCD driver chips, integrated power management chips will be coming from Richtek, and iML will be supplying programmable gamma/Vcom buffer components for the iPad’s touch panel.
None of these companies have confirmed they’ve been lined up to sell Apple iPad 3 components, and Apple has a long track record of not commenting on unannounced products.
None of the rumored parts suppliers have said when they’re supposed to start delivering components to Apple, which means there aren’t any new bits of information surfacing yet to help narrow down when the next iPad update will likely happen.
Apple last updated the iPad in March of this year and has been hard pressed to keep up with customer demand. Assuming the company follows its somewhat predictable launch cycle, the iPad 3 will likely ship in the early part of 2012.