Sources close to Apple say that the company has pushed back the release date for its forthcoming large-size iPad, according to a Wall Street Journal article by Lorraine Luk and Daisuke Wakabayashi.
Apple has organized a media event for October 16th, and industry watchers have been speculating that this would feature the unveiling of the new iPad, which will feature a larger high-resolution screen. Apparently the original plan had been for manufacturers to begin mass production of the device this December, but the slow outpout of the new large-scale iPhone 6 Plus has raised concerns about how realistic the original iPad targets were.
The article cites a lack of labour as at least a part of the problem. Foxconn Technology Co., the Zhengzhou-based manufacturer that is a major Apple supplier, currently has over 200,000 labourers working on the new iPhones, and apparently would need even more to meet Apple’s production targets. Meanwhile, in America, industry analysts have been puzzling over the sudden falling out between Apple and GT Advanced Technologies, which had been slated to provide the scratch-resistant sapphire glass to be used in Apple’s forthcoming mobile devices – though it’s unclear whether this factors at all in the iPad delay.
The larger-screen iPad has been viewed as a corrective for Apple’s decreasing market share in the tablet field – a drop of 6.1 percent over the last year – though the same trend applies to other major players like Samsung as smaller tablet producers such as China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. flood into the market with products of their own.
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