EVEN MORE FROM DIGITIMES ON YOU KNOW WHATSubtitle: Send in the Chips!
Can we take any more of these Android tablet rumors? Just launch them already! :-) But by everything that's said at Digitimes, they're not quite ready. Each time, the latest is whatever myriad of of companies are involved in getting orders or doing shipments for this or for that.
So far, we haven't read of units being assembled, tested, delivered, refined, etc. (though we can't expect that either), although Quanta was said at one point to have delivered some 7" tablets already but if true, they could have been samples or proposed prototypes.
On July 27, Digitimes's Cage Chao and Steve Shen reported that several Taiwan chip design houses may see their sales increasing 'vigorously' in 2011's 3rd quarter due to "their shipments of IC parts to the supply chain for Amazon's 7- and 10-inch tablet PCs to be launched in the quarter, according to industry sources." They add:
' With Amazon targeting to ship four million tablet PCs in 2011, IC [integrated circuit] orders from Amazon have become the second largest order from the tablet PC sector, trailing only the iPad, the sources indicated. '
So, this report has the 10" tablet in view for this year also, although that was a secondary target in other reports, with the basic expectation for early 2012 on those.
Their sources are almost certainly from those involved with a "number of Taiwan-based IC design houses", who are hoping to strengthen their presence in the tablet segment and be more competitive against international IC players.
The resourceful Digitimes adds an interesting table of suppliers:
| Amazon tablets: Major suppliers for parts and components | |
| Item | Vendor |
| Touch panels | Wintek, J Touch, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) |
| CPU | Nvidia |
| Touch controller ICs | ILI Technology (Ilitek) |
| LCD driver ICs | Novatek Microelectronics |
| Ambient light sensors | Capella Microsystems (Taiwan), Sitronix Technology |
| Power management ICs | Richtek Technology, Global Mixed-code Technology |
| Gravity sensors | Sitronix |
Sources: Industry sources, compiled by Digitimes, July 2011
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Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
You know, I'm fed up of reading about rumours. When there is something concrete and verifiable it is worth posting, otherwise all these varying rumours are just noise and you hear it from other general tech blogs too. Gonna have to unsubscribe from the RSS feed.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, there's a certain point where the rumors and counter-rumors get so tiring, it's best to say, "Forget this. I'm waiting until the product is out to think about this any more." Life's too short to spend fretting about what might be.
ReplyDeleteAndy, wise choice for yourself.
ReplyDeleteInkling, so true.
Not fretting. As a blogger on the Kindle world, I give readers the info in case they're curious and they can choose to roll their eyes and skip past it, I hope.