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After Japan's Quake, Taiwan Helps Fill iPad 2 Supply-Chain Gaps
RedEaredSlider writes "Like many device manufacturers, Apple cannot seem to escape supply concerns in the wake of the ongoing crisis in Japan. The company is hoping that AU Optronics will fill the void left by companies like Hitachi and Toshiba, both of which have been affected by the series of disasters that have rocked Japan. Damage to many factories from the earthquake and an ongoing nuclear disaster has disrupted supply chains and caused large slowdowns in production of vital electronic components."
Between two hot stories, there is an angle, no matter how obtuse.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
The world does not stop because of a disaster. We don't all quit what we are doing just because something bad happens. Companies still need to keep selling their stuff, the world economy needs to keep moving.
Further, one of the things Japan needs is for their stuff to be in demand, so they can get their industry up and running again and make money to help pay for the cost of all this.
I've been looking forward to building a new Sandy Bridge system and the disaster in Japan has thrown quite a wrench in it, I'm afraid. The high-quality Asus and MSI motherboards are, of course, assembled in China. However, it is my understanding that the high-quality capacitors and some of the other vital components in the boards are manufactured in Japan.
The revision 3 boards -- with the cougar point SATA issue resolved -- have been in short supply since...well, up to now. I was anticipating several months of supply -- oversupply, specifically -- to knock down the price of the boards, some of which are selling _above_ MSRP -- particularly the Asus P8P67 Pro. From what I understand, Asus, MSI, gigabyte, and the rest are having enough trouble just getting boards to folks that RMA'd their original boards, which is why so few are in the retail channel.
That, of course, leads me to the fear that the Japan-related supply shortage shoe has yet to drop. Kind of sucks.
Then again, I didn't loose my house...
This could easily have extended consequences for the quality of the devices that are put in the market over the next 1-6 months. New possibly untested stopgap suppliers, providing technology condensed sensitive parts. This won't just affect Apple, many manufacturers will get hit by this. Would be interesting to see stats for returns from some of these companies over the next few months.
What would we do without iPad 2s!?!?
I know! the iPad 2 is the most important technological development since man first learned to create Fire. (It's 33% *thinner* for goodness sake!)
Without a steady supply of iPad 2's, civilization would collapse overnight. It's miraculous that we managed to survive as long as we have without this vital technology.
Required reading for internet skeptics
epic fail..
The parts the had been made in Japan were vital to building the iPad.
Not that iPads are vital.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Like Japan, Taiwan does a lot of high-tech manufacturing.
There is more than one level of high-tech manufacturing. It's one thing to take a 0402 capacitor and put it onto the PCB. It's a very different thing to make that capacitor from microscopic parts in the first place. Do you think there are no trade secrets in ceramics that allow you to cram a few uF into an 0402 part? (Murata is a Japanese company.) Even this tiny segment of passives is dominated by US and Japanese manufacturers (TDK, Taiyo Yuden, Kemet, Panasonic, Murata.) Even AVX, a very solid US manufacturer, has nothing to offer if you need 4.7uF in size 0402.
Companies like Panasonic-ECG and Rohm are doing very well, and they are producing very cost-competitive components. If you are looking for a low cost surface mounted aluminum capacitor, Panasonic is the most likely manufacturer.