iPhone 5S Display Production to Start in June
Display production for the iPhone 5S will begin in June and will be handled in large part by Sharp.
The company is one of Apple's primary display partners and it plans to begin manufacturing LCD panels for the iPhone 5S around the beginning of the summer, according to a report from Japanese newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.
Apple was originally expected to ramp up production on the iPhone 5S in March, however, manufacturing issues have slowed the process down significantly. This was confirmed by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in April.
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Kuo reported that Apple was having issues with the fingerprint sensor back in April. This caused the company to push back the launch date for the smartphone.
Apple will also launch a low-cost version iPhone that will feature mid-end specs this year, according to a new report.
J.P. Morgan analysts Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz recently spoke to AllThingsD about the low-cost model and stated that Apple will not use lower-end components to build this new iPhone. Instead, Apple will take a different approach creating a mid-range device that is a bit cheaper than the regular iPhone.
The analysts stated that Apple's approach with this iPhone will be similer to its iPad Mini release as the company used older components that were top-of-the-line just one year prior to create a lower-cost device that could compete in that market. The iPad Mini also costs more than some of its fiercest competitors such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD and still manages to sell really well.
Hariharan and Moskowitz predict that the low-cost iPhone will cost between $350 and $400 without a contract. The iPhone normally starts at $650, making this other version $250 cheaper. On contract it might either end up being free or costing in between $50 and $100.
