Industry insider elite DigiTimes has just published a report which suggests the recent explosion at Foxconn Electronics’ plant in Chengdu, China will not be enough for the competition to gain ground on the iPad 2. Instead, Apple has a chance to make up for the losses by ramping up production 50 percent in the second half of 2011. Additionally, the Foxconn Chengdu plant only shipped 1.6 million iPad 2s through April, less than 30 percent of Apple’s worldwide shipments.
Despite Apple’s reported move to ramp production at the Foxconn plant, capacitive touch panels like those used in the iPad 2, remain in short supply. According to DigiTimes, the biggest threat to Apple’s supply chain is Acer since most other competitors have moved to thin-film-type capacitive touch panels.
“Even if Apple’s competitors drop their tablet PC prices to gain advantages from Apple suffering from short supply of iPad 2, consumers, who intend to purchase an iPad 2, are mostly willing to wait.”
The report concludes the labor shortages at the Chengdu plant are now Apple’s biggest concern. Whether or not Foxconn can ramp up production to meet fourth quarter demand will determine if Apple can beat forecasts. With an onslaught of Android tablets headed our way this year the question remains — can Apple stay atop the tablet wars in 2011?
via DigiTimes
