supply

Microsoft and component suppliers in Asia are in the initial stages of testing a smartphone design, according to a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.

A source cited in the report says the phone has a screen size of between four and five inches.

Top smartphones from Samsung, Apple, HTC, and Motorola all have screen sizes in that range.

But officials at component suppliers added that they're not sure if the Microsoft phone would go into mass production, according to the report. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

If Microsoft does follow through and pushes … Read more

No, it's not a complete version of Apple's much-rumored iPad mini, but it could be a few more pieces of the puzzle.

Parts reseller ETradeSupply, which posted accurate photos and videos of Apple's iPhone 5 casing some three months before its official debut, today has images of what it says is the 8-inch LCD screen for Apple's smaller iPad, as well as its battery.

Neither part is connected to any electronics, or other pieces of housing, though as ETradeSupply notes, the leaked images add credence to the fact that Apple will stick with a 4:3 … Read more

Rumors about an iPad Mini arriving in October have taken a shellacking over the last couple of days.

First, the expected October 10 invites didn't go out. Now a report in Digitimes claims there's a production delay -- a delay that could mean the device won't show up till after October.

If there is a device. The iPad Mini is, of course, an unconfirmed product to begin with. So it's hard to say with a straight face that a rumored product can actually be delayed.

(Update: A report now says the event will take place on … Read more

Cuts, scrapes, and scratches are part of what seems to be slowing Apple's iPhone 5 supply.

According to Bloomberg, the smartphone's delicate aluminum housing, coupled with increasingly stricter quality control, has slowed production and added to the device's supply shortfall.

When Apple launched the iPhone 5 last month, fanatics flocked to stores and Web sites to get the device -- but many were met with "sold out" and "check back soon" notices. Early reports said one of the reasons for the shortage of phones was the device's new LG Display technology.

Now … Read more

What do you do when you have a 1,000-unit-per-month hard-drive habit -- then Thailand floods wipe out your supply?

In the case of online backup specialist Backblaze, whose business could have been crippled when the natural disaster last year raised the price of a $129 3TB drive to $349, you improvise.

The company turned employees, their friends, and their families into an ad hoc supply chain who scoured Best Buy, Costco, NewEgg, B&H Foto, and other retailers across the country for drives. And when they learned that external USB storage devices were actually cheaper than the drives … Read more

Apple might be suffering from an iPhone 5 supply shortfall, all because of its new display technology.

Apple relies primarily on LG Display and more recently on Sharp to produce the iPhone 5's screen, notes a Bloomberg report. However, Sharp has faced some trouble with defects and didn't start shipping screens until the smartphone's debut, a Barclays analyst stated, according to Bloomberg.

An IHS iSuppli analyst also told Bloomberg that "supply constraints" may have hampered the supply of iPhones its first weekend on store shelves.

Apple's iPhone 5 comes with in-cell touch sensing. Unlike … Read more

A preliminary analysis puts the iPhone 5's cost at $199, slightly more than the iPhone 4S.

The virtual teardown by IHS iSuppli puts the bill of materials, or BOM, at $199 for the low-end model with 16GB of NAND flash memory.

After factoring in the $8 manufacturing cost, the cost to produce the phone increases to $207, iSuppli said.

The BOM jumps to $209 for the 32GB version of the phone and $230 for the high-end 64GB version, the market researcher said.

"The iPhone 5's components are expected to be slightly more expensive compared to the iPhone … Read more

Microsoft has found malware on new computers its employees purchased in various cities in China as part of an investigation into the security of the supply chain. That finding led researchers to a botnet called Nitol and a court order giving the company permission to take technical measures to disrupt the botnet.

The effort, dubbed Operation b70, began in August 2011 when it decided to see if there was any merit to claims that counterfeit software and malware were being installed on computers by suppliers before they hit the retail shelves in China. So, the company had employees go into … Read more