DisplayBlog

According to iFixit’s teardown of the MacBook Air, some juicy information has been revealed regarding the LCD:

Display assembly weight: 465g (34% less than on the MacBook)
LCD panel thickness: 3mm, thanks to the LED lightsource.
Inverter board: None needed due to the use of DC-powered LEDs.
Cable: Just one that provides both data and power to the display.

Apple and its display supplier(s) have done a tremendous job of thinning down and simplifying the design. I have also been told the glass used to manufacture the LCD is just 0.25mm thick.

Source: iFixit

Apple’s third quarter ended June 30, just 30 hours after the iPhone became available to the public. 270,000 iPhones were sold in 30 hours. That’s fantastic! A simple calculation results in revenues ranging from $135 million to $162 million. That’s $4.5 million to $5.4 million, AN HOUR. Due to activation problems, AT&T reported total iPhone activations at just 146,000 in the same time frame. My guess is that Apple is on target to hit 10 million units by the end of 2008, but not because of the 9000 iPhone sales per hour in the first 30 hours, but because the iPhone will be available to a few major countries in Q4 of 2007 and to the rest of the 300+ million European market in 2008. Europe is the largest GSM market, as far as I know. I would think Japan would be getting the iPhone relatively soon too since they too have an established GSM infrastructure with NTT Docomo having the best chance of working with Apple. Though CDMA is stronger in South Korea, GSM networks are available through a couple of service providers: KT Freetel and SK Telecom. SK would be the best choice, in my opinion, in working with Apple in Korea.

Source: Apple via Engadget

According to DigiTimes referring to its source The Chinese-language Economic Daily, Dell will introduce 15.4″ notebook PCs with LED backlights at the end of 2007. Forward Electronics, a Taiwan-based integrator, will be putting Dell’s notebook PC together using LED-backlit LCD panels manufactured by Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT). Both Forward Electronics and CPT are subsidiaries of the Tatung Group, as reported by SSL Net.

It is a trend, but a noteworthy one. Apple does something cool and the rest of the industry follows. I do recognize it is a gross exaggeration, but bear with me. Just a couple of weeks ago, Apple introduced an updated version of its 15.4″ MacBook Pro that incorporated a LED backlight instead of the usual CCFL backlight. Although we use the term backlight, on a notebook PC LCD panel, the “backlight” is actually located on the bottom of the panel with a single strip of LEDs or a single CCFL tube. The benefits of a LED backlight versus a CCFL backlight are few, but very important. One is the absence of poisonous materials such as mercury in LEDs. The other is the lower power consumption of LEDs. Mercury is carcinogenic, meaning it causes cancer. With hundreds of millions of LCD panels produced every year for notebook PCs, LCD monitors and LCD TVs, and without proper disposal of these items, it is not surprising to see an increase in mercury levels in us and fish. Lower power consumption means one of two things: you can work for more hours on the same capacity battery OR you can work for the same number of hours on a smaller capacity (less weight) battery. Less important but still a nice feature to have is the slimmer profile of LCD panels with LED backlights.

I was so excited when I called up the Apple Store at Valley Fair in San Jose, CA and found out they had a ton of iPhones available. This was around 8:30pm. I got there and there was a long line but the line was moving along pretty quickly. And there were Apple employees cheering as customers who purchased iPhones came out the store. The mood was pretty festive. There were guys who came out with two little black bags. It didn’t take long before I was near the front, about 10 minutes? As I got near to the front I could see the Apple employees were letting customers in 10 at a time. Soon enough, I was in.

There was an Apple employee that came by and asked if I had any questions and asked if I wanted to play around with the iPhone. I said, “Sure, I’ll take a look.” And I proceed to take the little marvel of a phone and started to press some eye-candy buttons. First the Internet: the response was fast, but that was because the Store had WiFi. Then Google Maps. I double touched, but nothing. The guy tells me, “You have to do the opposite of pinching…” I do that and zoom in I go. I pinch, and I zoom out. Cool. I use the phone function and dial my phone. My phone vibrates. Nice.

I get to the counter and a nice Asian girl asks, “What would you like?” I say I want the 8GB version. She punches me up on her portable POS device, which was amusingly a Microsoft CE device. In no time I had a iPhone bag like all the others before me. “I need to get a case for this,” was in my head as I moved along the isles. Then I came up to the cases. There were transparent acrylic cases, leather cases, rubber cases, etc. I didn’t know what to get. I remembered when I got a rubber case for my 4G iPod. I didn’t like it. I looked for a while but couldn’t decide. So I asked an Apple employee what he would get. He said that he hadn’t decided yet but that he would prefer something like this, and hands me over some non-stick Power Support Crystal Film for the iPhone.

This one is cool; according to the cover it: has a scratch-resistant hard coat, a high-transparency gloss treatment, a PET protection film, and a newly developed polymer adhesive. This adhesive is not like tape; you can take it off (not very easily) and leave no trace. So I get it: $14.95. Priceless, really. You see, this is my birthday present to me. I wanted to be nice to myself. I’ve worked really hard and wanted to treat myself to something nice and coincidentally the iPhone became available on my birthday.

I walk over to some tables in front of Nordstrom, take the iPhone out, take the Crystal Film out and cover the front. It’s ready to be activated now. After 15 minutes of driving, I get in front of my computer and start iTunes. I connect the iPhone. And… nothing happens. I have to download a new version of iTunes. Takes a few minutes and after that I see the little iPhone icon and start to begin my activation process. That was 1 hour ago.

A few minutes ago, I called up AT&T (1-877-419-4500) and asked about the activation. The lady on the other line, who happened to be in California, was extremely nice. Felt like I was talking to a really close friend. I wish I remembered her name. Anyway, she told me that activation can take from 2 to 6 hours. “I guess I should get some sleep then,” I told her. We both laughed and she wished me to enjoy my new phone. Now, I think I need to sleep. And see if activation is complete tomorrow morning. Or should I stay awake…

Update…

At around 9:30am this morning, I received an email stating that my iPhone has been activated. That took about 12 hours. Wow. I will let this slide since AT&T probably had to activate millions last night. So, since I know I had to update my iTunes, I did that first. Then I connected my iPhone. No luck: I had to update my system software. I was in the process… ah, it’s finished (the Software Update logo is jumping up and down for attention). I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update…

Ah. What a wonderful day it has been. Email, browsing the Net, literally flipping through pictures, and listening to my music (I flipped through music too!) on my iPhone. I am very satisfied with my birthday gift. I added times to Seoul and London along with weather info for the two cities and the process was quite smooth and easy. I also added a couple of stocks that I am tracking. FYI, one is doing well and the other isn’t (of course, this was yesterday’s news). The digital camera is just so-so, but I didn’t expect much more than that. The only unsatisfied portion is the slow EDGE connectivity, bumping along a slow 2-lane road with lots and lots of signals. But I am somewhat relieved to know that just $20/mo is getting me almost universal data connection (within the US that is) and all I need to find is a Starbucks to get on the Net freeway.

Update 2007.07.13…

The transition is over. After testing the iPhone (there was really no doubt I would be keeping it!) for about 2 weeks, I took the complete plunge and ported over my number from Verizon Wireless. Several of my good friends are amazed at the simplicity and usability of the iPhone. Today, I ran into my Chemistry teacher from my high school days. He was intrigued about the iPhone, so I walked through the main features. He was all smiles and wondered if there was a way to connect to an Exchange Server and took out his black Moto Q. I used to have a Moto Q, but as I looked at the interface, I felt like I was looking at a previous-generation mobile device. The main feature about the Q’s interface that, in a way, jolted me was how it unnaturally forced the user to use the device in a particular, esoteric, way and very much based on how the hardware was designed. I say esoteric because I am now very much used to using my finger for navigation, activation, etc. on the iPhone. In response to the Exchange Server question, I remembered reading something about it on Apple’s page and simply answered that there should be a team at Apple that works with corporate clients to help connect the iPhone to Exchange Servers. I don’t know if this is true, so if anyone knows of something, please leave a comment. In closing, my transition to the iPhone is almost complete. Now if I can get it to sync with iCal without hanging…

According to DigiTimes, there will be three TFT LCD manufacturers that will greatly benefit from Apple’s iPhone. The three are Sharp, Epson and Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMDisplay). Supplying the LCD to Apple for the iPhone is estimated to generate about US$160 million each for the three mentioned. The article also postulates a $45-$50 price tag on the LCD.

Let’s do some fun calculations.
Total revenue from LCDs: US$160 million x 3 = $480 million
Total iPhone unit sales: $480 million / $45 =10.67 million unit or $480 / $50 = 9.6 million

Sounds to be about right. Of course the time frame for these numbers is from June 29, 2007 to the end of 2008. So that’s revenue. I wonder what the profits are…