iPhone 5 Screens Shipping Soon, Says Sharp

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Sharp president Takashi Okuda said that panels will begin to ship next month, bringing a glimmer of hope to investors.

Apple might as well fess up now and admit that its iPhone 5 -- or whatever the gadget will be called -- is on the way in September. The cat is out of the bag, and now even Japan's Sharp Corp. is admitting to some degree that the highly-rumored iOS smartphone is on the way. The admittance was offered up to the press in Tokyo on Thursday after the company released its latest quarterly earnings.

"Shipments will start in August," Sharp's new president, Takashi Okuda, said. He reportedly declined to give a more specific date for shipments beyond that point, nor did he actually comment on Sharp's relationship with Apple. But as Reuters states, these screens are widely known to be headed for the new iPhone.

The other two suppliers of the panels are LG Display Co Ltd and Japan Display Inc.

As reported earlier, Apple is supposedly revealing the new iPhone 5, the iPad Mini and new iPod devices on September 12. The phone itself is supposedly slated for a September 21 release, and so far there's no word of when exactly the rumored 7-inch iPad tablet will hit retail shelves although there's talk it may hit the market at the same time.

The latest smartphone will reportedly come packed with 30-percent larger screen than the current iPhone. measuring 4-inches from corner to corner. Its closest competitor, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S III, sports a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2.

The iPhone 5's screen will also reportedly be thinner than previous versions, using in-cell panels. This technology embeds touch sensors into the liquid crystal display itself, eliminating the touch-screen layer used in the current iPhone models. The phone will reportedly be thinner overall and sport a metal back.

Okuda's mention of the iPhone 5 display shipments was believed to serve as a distraction from Sharp's "disappointing" quarterly earnings. The company reported a fiscal first quarter loss of around $1.76 billion, and a plan to eliminate 5,000 jobs by the end of the fiscal year (March 2013). The company now projects a $3.18 billion loss for the fiscal year ending March 2013, up from a previous estimated loss of around $382 million.

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Kevin Parrish
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • house70
    "Its closest competitor, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S III"....
    Closest competitor in terms of what? SGS3 is already old news in Android world, people are waiting for the next gen Nexus (or even Nexii) phones. OS? Android already has a lot of features that only recently have been copied by iOS, and likely next iOS will copy some more (widgets, maybe?). In terms of expandable memory and replaceable batteries, there isn't even a contest.
    SGS3 may be one of the top notch phones right now, but so is HTC OneX and the latest LG model. Motorola has their Razr HD in the pipeline (not that you'll be getting this kind of news from Tom's, they're too focused on Apple rumors), and I am really interested to see which manufacturer(s) will jump on the next Nexus bandwagon.
    Reply
  • aftcomet
    Who cares.
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    You dont call Iphone 5 closest competitor to Samsung Galaxy S III unless u feature a quad core + Gorilla Glass.
    Reply
  • aftcomet
    soldier37I dropped the Iphone after the disappointing 4S came out expecting the 5 last year. Its too late for Apple to play catch up now. A 4inch screen and dual core with a gig or ram isnt going to cut it this time around. I realize they have a base that will buy anything they come out with. I loved my Iphone since they came out I had one. But when I started seeing teenagers run around with them last year it was time to move on. Got a Galaxy Note and a huge high res screen 1280 x 800 super amoled plus and a customized OS. Everyone comments on it wishes they had one. The Iphone now is a dime a dozen nothing special or innovative any longer. People are making the switch and waking up to Android.
    I thought it was common knowledge that people don't buy Apple to be on the cutting end of technology.
    Reply
  • sacre
    soldier37I dropped the Iphone after the disappointing 4S came out expecting the 5 last year. Its too late for Apple to play catch up now. A 4inch screen and dual core with a gig or ram isnt going to cut it this time around. I realize they have a base that will buy anything they come out with. I loved my Iphone since they came out I had one. But when I started seeing teenagers run around with them last year it was time to move on. Got a Galaxy Note and a huge high res screen 1280 x 800 super amoled plus and a customized OS. Everyone comments on it wishes they had one. The Iphone now is a dime a dozen nothing special or innovative any longer. People are making the switch and waking up to Android.
    "But when I started seeing teenagers run around with them"

    So basically, you don't want to own what people own. Alright, well news flash bud, teenagers use Galaxy as well.

    You want to be unique, but you never will be. You always want to avoid being a "sheeple" and prevent yourself from acquiring products, those who acquire products simply because they're easy to use, clean, fun - are the smart ones.

    I own an iPhone 4s myself, and it pisses me off a lot. I want more space, I want to customize, I want to easily transfer files but I can't. But am I about to piss on the brand and call the users sheeple and shit? No.

    Some people grow up and realize people have different tastes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, meaning, what is beautiful to me may not be for you.

    If you can't accept that people enjoy apple products, others enjoy Android based products, you're the only person here with a problem.

    Grow up.
    Reply
  • aznshinobi
    Well I mean the Note 2 is getting announced soon so the SGS3 is about to be dethroned.
    Reply
  • face-plants
    "Closest competitor" seems to mean nothing more than the popular smartphone with the closest size screen to the new iPhone 5. Some of these people in the comments section are about as quick to jump on each others' cases as Apple and Samsung's lawyers!
    Reply
  • fuzzion
    My Galaxy note 1 is still probably more advanced than iphone 6, let alone 5.
    Reply
  • Android really just can't compete anymore. Everyone I know that's tried Android has switched back to iPhone and hasn't looked back. They had a terrible time trying to sell their android phones - one guy traded his Galaxy Note on Craigslist for a 3GS and 25 bucks, and that was by far the best offer he could find after a week.

    Hopefully this android fad will die soon and the illusion that people are actually paying money for these phones (when in reality, the carriers have to give them away lol) and people will move on to Windows Phone. I would say move on to iPhone, but most Android users are poor and are on value carriers that apple will never taint its image on, like boost mobile and cricket.

    Trust!
    Reply
  • Bloob
    Win_phone_eightAndroid really just can't compete anymore. Everyone I know that's tried Android has switched back to iPhone and hasn't looked back. They had a terrible time trying to sell their android phones - one guy traded his Galaxy Note on Craigslist for a 3GS and 25 bucks, and that was by far the best offer he could find after a week.Hopefully this android fad will die soon and the illusion that people are actually paying money for these phones (when in reality, the carriers have to give them away lol) and people will move on to Windows Phone. I would say move on to iPhone, but most Android users are poor and are on value carriers that apple will never taint its image on, like boost mobile and cricket.Trust!I don't like your attitude, but I kinda agree. Android is not for everyone. At the moment it is just the one most widely available (price points and locations).
    Reply