According to a new report from the Commercial Times, Apple supplier Pegatron is gearing up to start mass-producing the iPhone 6. The production is expected to kick off in the second quarter of this year at its Kunshan, China-based plant.
The newspaper says that the manufacturer has already begun recruiting workers in China, and has even opened up a new factory space, in an effort to prepare for large orders from Apple. The new handset is expected to debut later this year...
GT Advanced Technologies, a U.S.-based company Apple's partnered with on mass-scale sapphire manufacture in its new Mesa, Arizona facility, today released earnings for the 2013 holiday quarter and said that 2014 will be a "transformational" year for the company. Plans to supply sapphire glass to Apple are "progressing well" as GT expects a very profitable second half of 2014.
Its projected revenues also indicate a Fall launch for the next iPhone model (or models, if you believe the rumors). According to GT, the company has "started to build out the facility in Arizona and staff the operation" during the previous quarter...
With a larger of the two jumbo-sized iPhones rumored to arrive later this year rocking a massive 5.5-inch screen, Apple's adamant to buy huge amounts of thin sapphire laminates, likely to strengthen the handset's cover glass. We know Apple invested nearly $500 million in high-tech furnaces and equipment for its Arizona sapphire plant.
The firm is operating the facility in partnership with GT Advanced.
We've also known that Apple and GT have signed an exclusive multi-year agreement and now Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth has gone on the record claiming that Apple has acquired three-year supply of sapphire screens...
Apple's upcoming A8 mobile processor is of course expected to power the next wave of iPhone and iPad devices, but the advanced chip apparently won't be manufactured by Samsung, which fabbed all of A-series processors since the iPhone 4's 2010 A4 chip.
According to a new report out of China, Samsung is experiencing yield issues and in turn has dropped out of Apple's A8 chip production...
As part of the 2014 Supplier Responsibility Report that was published yesterday, Apple has refreshed its Supplier Responsibility website with a newly updated list of component suppliers and major manufacturing locations where Apple's gadgets are being assembled.
Bloomberg analyzed Apple's public documents and discovered that Flextronics International Ltd. has now joined the company's supply chain as assemblers of 'Made in USA' Macs. Although Flextronics now gets to assemble Macs in Apple's $100 million Austin, Texas plant, Foxconn remains the largest manufacturer of Apple products, with seven assembly locations in China and Brazil...
Future iPhones could be built by Google robots as The Wall Street Journal reports that the search monster is working with Apple's favorite contract manufacturer, Foxconn of Taiwan, on automating production lines.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou reportedly met with Google's Andy Rubin in Taipei to talk new robotic technologies meant to "speed up robot deployment" at Foxconn plants. The machines would run Google's upcoming robotic operating system for manufacturers. The two men have reportedly been collaborating since last year to carry out Google's vision for robotics.
Eagled-eyed readers will remember that Google's boss Larry Page in March 2013 put former Android head Andy Rubin in charge of a moonshot project to create a new generation of robots...
Apple last week began moving sophisticated equipment and furnaces into its new manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. The plant, operated by a company called GT Advanced, should produce two times the current worldwide capacity of sapphire, enough for an annual production of about 100 million iPhones with a sapphire-protected cover glass.
But how exactly did State of Arizona attract Apple to build the plant in Mesa and create more than 700 high-quality jobs in the first year, and 4,000 more if successful? With the right package of incentives, perks and tax breaks, that's how...
We've known since last fall that Apple was teaming up with GT Advanced to open up a sapphire crystal manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona. But up until now, it's been unclear exactly what components it would be making. Camera lenses? Touch ID covers?
Well according to a new report from 9to5Mac, the plant is gearing up to build iPhone displays. Citing import/export and other records, the site says that the Mesa plant has just procured enough equipment to make over 100M ~5-inch iPhone displays this year...
By now, most of you have probably heard that Apple has teamed up with manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies to open up a plant in Mesa, Arizona for producing sapphire. The plant is nearly ready to open, and Apple has already begun hiring engineers.
Up until now, though, little has been known about what kind of parts this sapphire factory would be producing. But some new documents just surfaced that may help fill in the blanks. Apparently, Apple is going to use the plant to produce a new 'critical' component...
Foxconn is looking to beef up its presence in the US according to some recent comments made by Terry Gou. During an event marking the company's 40th anniversary, the chairman said they were exploring the possibly of opening a large display plant in the country.
The manufacturing giant already has a handful of factories scattered across the US, but this particular facility would be capable of producing TV-sized display panels over 60-inches. And the move could save Foxconn's American clients millions of dollars in shipping costs...
According to a new rumor by Taiwan's Apple Daily, Apple's favorite contract manufacturer, Foxconn, has ostensibly commenced trial production of the next iPhone, using sapphire as a display glass cover. The initial production run has been pegged at 100 units.
This doesn't mean that the next iPhone will in fact ditch Corning's Gorilla Glass for sapphire-strengthened display, mind you. Apple currently uses sapphire to protect iOS device cameras and Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s from scratches and dings.
Earlier today, a video excerpt from ABC's upcoming interview with CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives brought the official confirmation of Apple's plan to exclusively produce sapphire crystal glass components at its new facility in Mesa, Arizona...
As we told you yesterday, ABC News will broadcast a rare interview with CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives this evening. And as Apple celebrates the Mac's 30th anniversary with a nice interactive timeline and video on Apple.com, the ABC interview is expected to offer some insight into the company's culture of secrecy, the Mac's importance to Apple's bottom line and more.
An excerpt from the interview was played Friday morning on Good Morning America, offering a taste of the full interview scheduled to be aired later today at 6:30PM EST on World News with Diane Sawyer...