Samsung and Apple may continue their battle in the marketplace and the courts, but Apple still has to turn to the South Korean firm when it needs extra production of Retina displays for its iOS devices.
Last we heard, recent yield and quality issues have reportedly prompted the iPhone maker to turn to its frenemy for help. Korea’s ETNews last Friday claimed Apple has asked Samsung for help as Sharp struggles to solve burn-in issues with IGZO panels for the iPad Air.
Sharp’s issues manufacturing the IGZO panels are causing Apple to turn to Samsung in order to keep supplies of the screens flowing.
A market research firm, DisplaySearch, on Monday corroborated the ETNews report, as they estimated Samsung’s 9.7-inch panel shipments will increase to 7.06 million units in the fourth quarter of this year.
This is a 2.7X increase over the 2.6 million 9.7-inch panels Samsung shipped during the third quarter of 2013.
Other than some Chinese vendors, Apple is the only tablet maker using screens measuring 9.7-inches diagonally.
