Apple, Suppliers Test Tablet With Smaller Screen
By By LORRAINE LUK in Taipei and JESSICA E. VASCELLARO in San Francisco — TAIPEI-Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, people familiar with the situation said …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second Apple display-sourcing story in two weeks: on February 1, AppleInsider reported Apple shopping for TV display components from a major supplier, and today the Wall Street Journal's Taipei and San Francisco desks add that Asian component suppliers are testing a smaller-screen tablet. The pickup was unusually broad — Engadget, The Verge, CNET, Gizmodo, MacRumors and Business Insider all ran it the same day — which itself signals how much appetite there is for any signal about Apple's next form factor.
Timing frames the leak. Apple shares closed above $500 on February 13, with speculation attributing the rally to a possible dividend rather than product news, and sources point to an iPad 3 announcement as soon as March 7. At the same moment, Apple has confirmed independent Fair Labor Association assessments of conditions at Foxconn following public protests at its stores — so any new-device ramp now proceeds under active labor scrutiny.
First-order effects
- Asian component suppliers receive test orders for a smaller tablet display, giving them an early position in a potential second iPad form factor while the supply chain ramps the rumored March 7 iPad 3.
- Apple faces a line-up question immediately: a smaller tablet would sit alongside the full-size iPad 3 its partners are preparing, not replace it.
Second-order effects
- Display and component makers gain negotiating leverage as Apple qualifies multiple screen sizes in parallel — the same dynamic behind this month's TV display-component sourcing — because each candidate form factor represents a separate volume commitment.
- Any smaller-tablet ramp routes through Foxconn just as the confirmed Fair Labor Association assessments begin, adding compliance overhead and schedule risk to assembly of whatever ships next.
Third-order effects
- If supplier test runs keep surfacing in the press, Apple's roadmap gets priced into component orders and analyst models months before any announcement, eroding the secrecy that has historically framed its launches.
- The pattern points toward Apple maintaining parallel screen-size tracks across categories — a smaller tablet now, television displays per the earlier reporting — rather than one canonical size per product line.
The trend: Apple's hardware roadmap is increasingly telegraphed through its Asian supply chain, with supplier test runs revealing new form factors before Apple confirms anything.