Trial Production of Thinner, Lighter iPad 5 to Begin Soon?

Apple will soon begin trial production of a new thinner and lighter 9.7-inch iPad, reports DigiTimes. Volume production is reportedly scheduled for July with monthly shipments reaching 2-3 million units in September.

As with the previous generation device, the display will have a resolution of 2048x1536; however, it's said to be built on a thinner 0.2mm glass substrate compared to the 0.25mm substrate for the current device. It will also feature thinner side bezels similar to the iPad mini.

The touch panel solution for 5th-generation iPad is GF2 (1 layer of glass and two layers of ITO film) instead of G/G bonding used in 4th-generation iPad, the sources added. The new iPad will use one LED light bar for backlighting, compared to two LED light bars used in 4th-generation iPad, the sources noted. The 5th-generation iPad is estimated to be 25-33% lighter than the 4th-generation one, the sources indicated.


LG, Samsung, and Sharp are expected to supply panels to Apple. Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology will provide the SMT for the LED light bars. Radiant Opto-Electronics and Coretronic will make the backlight units and TPK Holding will undertake the touch panel bonding, said the report.

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