Apple’s highly anticipated iPad 3 will reportedly be in short supply until some time in the second quarter according to a new report. Industry watcher DigiTimes on Thursday cited anonymous sources within Apple’s supply chain in claiming that the high-resolution 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display panels being supplied to Apple by Sharp may be in short supply. Initial shipments are expected to be limited as a result, and production supposedly won’t be ramped up until some time in the second quarter. ...

Seagate said in its recent fiscal second-quarter earnings report that it expects the flooding in Thailand to result in a continued hard drive shortage throughout 2012. The company originally reported issues after flooding affected its factories in October, 2011. In addition, analysts have suggested that the floods could increase laptop and desktop PC prices, and hurt overall sales for major computer vendors. Seagate said that it shipped 47 million hard drives during the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which wa...

Last week T-Mobile said that the high demand for the G2x had resulted in “inventory constraints,”and that it was working with LG to get the device back on shelves as quickly as possible. As a result of those constraints, however, the carrier has increased the price of the G2x to $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate —a $50 boost from its debut price of $199. Hopefully T-Mobile drops the cost back down after LG increases its production volume, but the carrier has given no indication that will be the...

According to Business Insider, a report from FBR analyst Craig Berger claims that Apple’s goal of producing 40-45 million iPads is “out of reach.” Apple’s current second-quarter production target is 6.2 million iPad units, but that may not be possible due to production issues with Hon Hai, Berger said. As a result, actual iPad production could drop to 5.2 million units during the third quarter. Similarly, Berger argues that Apple may face production issues from the March earthquake in ...

Sony Ericsson released a statement on Friday delaying the broader launch of the Xperia Neo until the third quarter due to supply chain disruptions caused by the earthquake in Japan. The firm said that volumes of its Xperia arc and Xperia PLAY were also affected, but it doesn’t appear that there are any delays with those launches. Sony Ericsson’s official statement is as follows:As Sony Ericsson continues to assess the impact of the situation in Japan on its business, we have communicated to our op...

Apple has reportedly placed a new order for 30 million display panels per year from leading display manufacturer AU Optronic. The unconfirmed report from Taiwan Economic News suggests Apple paid a huge 300-400% premium to lock in the order, which could see AU Optronics produce up to 100,000 iPad 2 displays each day. The order accounts for about half of the global tablet market, the report claims. Apple had sourced its 9.7-inch iPad 2 displays from LGD and Samsung and some manufacturing took place in Japan, wh...

Two of Apple’s component suppliers, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co and Toshiba, have reportedly shut down some of their operations in Japan in the wake of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, this could result in shortages of Apple’s iPad 2 and iPhone 4 in March, through the rest of the first quarter, and into June. Toshiba manufactures 40% of the world’s flash memory, and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co is believed to be Apple’s go-to company ...

The shortage of critical components needed to manufacture the HTC Droid Incredible shows no sign of letting up, as the popular Verizon Wireless smartphone has had its ship by date pushed back to July 12th. Amid the shortage, demand for the Incredible is so high that  Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam recently noted that his company “had to pull way back” on shipments to retail stores in order to focus on online sales. The shortage has also allowed the ageing Motorola Droid — itself facing ...

We’re not too sure what’s going on here, but all of a sudden finding a HTC Droid Incredible for sale has become virtually impossible. No longer proudly on display on Verizon’s homepage, the only way to find the phone is to do a manual search for it. It’s still listed as available for sale, but clicking on the “buy” button redirects to a page which screams in bold letters that “the selection you made is unavailable at this time.“ Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAd...

Speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit on Thursday, Lee Wong-jong, VP of marketing for Samsung, said that the global shortage of OLED displays will continue in foreseeable future as demand has greatly outpaced supply. Said Lee, ”demand for high-end displays is very strong and we may continue to fail to meet all customer requirements, even after expanding capacity by seven-fold, until next year.” Such delays are part of the reason Verizon is having great difficulties meeting sales quota...

An inadequate supply of parts is partly to blame for widespread shortages of Droid Incredible, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said on Friday. Having been unable to stockpile enough key components such as the WVGA capacitive display assemblies manufactured by Samsung, entire shipments of the HTC-made Android smartphone are selling out within hours of their arrival at retail stores. According to McAdam, the shortage is so dire that his company “had to pull way back” on deliveries in order to foc...

And so it begins. Not even 24 hours after the Palm Pre announcement, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse assumed the roll of Buzz Killington when he explained Sprint’s lack of high-visibility Pre advertising to investors. According to Hesse, Sprint “didn’t intend to advertise [the Pre] heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while” and that it “won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.” Okay, so let’s get th...

Got your hands on a shiny new iPhone 3G? If you answered yes, you’re one of the lucky ones. For those of you that didn’t pick up the new handset during the last week, you could be in for a long hard journey. According to industry analyst Gene Munster, the current iPhone shortage could persist through mid-August, crushing the dreams of would-be iPhone 3G owners everywhere. Herman Munster dropped word that initial demand for the handset outstripped Apple’s estimates, resulting in a supply shor...