Friday, November 2,2007 @ 10:00am
iPod touch hit with parts shortage
Shoppers may sometimes have a difficult time finding an iPod touch this holiday season, reports suggest. Market sources are quoted as saying that although Apple had intended to rapidly expand shipments of the Touch towards the end of the year, a general shortage of touchscreen panels has made this difficult, with volume shipments only expected to resume sometime this month. This may however serve to keep NAND flash prices low, since with lower demand from Apple, manufacturers have had to seek out other companies to buy their product.
Flash was for a time difficult to find, due to the sheer amount of iPods and iPhones being sold, along with power outages at Samsung factories and the small capacity of other companies. In September however, Apple's flash demands mysteriously dropped, prompting some to suggest that the company had already stockpiled for the holidays. It may now be the case that Apple had no alternative but to slow down in the face of scarce touchscreen supplies.