When the comments came out we felt they were being made in a very unusual attempt to present some good PR for Apple. The fact that it came off as desperate was surely not the intent. Still we cannot deny that most of what Gou said was not completely accurate. Although it is true that reports say that Apple will being using a new thinner LCD panel, but the displays are not being made by Sharp alone. There are two other manufacturers that make the same panel; Japan Display Inc. and LG Display (which shares a home country with Samsung).  Samsung has an advantage here in that their OLED panels are already thinner, use less power and have a measurably better color density. Apple has to find something to compete with Samsung in this area so the new panels are a must.

Another error that Gou made was claiming that Apple was getting into a deal with Corning that would lock out the competition… It seems that Samsung and Corning just singed a nice $600 Million deal to manufacture LCD glass substrate. The new venture (once finalized) will be called Samsung Corning Precision Materials and will be located in China. Although some are saying that the new plant will focus on making the new glass for TVs rather than smart phones and tablets you can bet that part of the deal included access to those materials for Samsung’s phones and tablets. This move (which is expected to be singed and done before the end of 2012) should prevent Apple from attempted to build an exclusive deal with Corning like Gou hinted at.

Right now there is nothing that was in Foxconn CEO Terry Gou’s rant that seems to be accurate. All of the rumors we have heard seem to indicate that Apple is now following rival Samsung with its next generation iPhone. They are moving to a smaller dock port (possibly Micro USB), a thinner and longer screen, NFC, and might even be moving the headphone jack to the bottom of the phone…. If all of that sounds familiar it should; it sounds just like the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy SII and III that Apple is trying so hard to pull from the shelves. We are interested in seeing what will happen if Apple does not get the bans they want on this line of phones and their copycat phone shows up. It might make the whole line of “slavishly copying” look even more hollow that it does now.

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