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Sony drops PlayStation 5 sales forecast again due to chip shortage
Sony is still struggling to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand.
Sony reportedly warned that PS5 shortages may continue until 2022
Sony is selling a lot of PlayStation 5s, but it may be some time before the console hits its true sales potential.
Wisconsin firms hope to make radioactive isotopes for nuclear medicine (updated)
Certain cardiac stress tests and other nuclear medicine diagnostics depend on molybdenum-99, or Mo-99, a radioactive isotope that decays into the diagnostic imaging agent technetium 99m, or Tc-99m. The latter is used in more than 40 million medical imaging procedures each year, but Mo-99 is costly and difficult to make. Now, two Wisconsin firms say they've found a more efficient way to make the critical material.
Intel admits 'tight' supply for cheap PC chips, focuses on high-end
In an open letter, interim Intel CEO Bob Swan admitted the company's supply of CPUs for the "entry level" PC market is "undoubtedly tight," so if you have trouble finding a cheap laptop for the holiday season then you know why. Between consumers upgrading their PCs, gaming and commercial systems he said Intel expects "modest" growth in PC shipments, while it will focus on delivering higher-end Xeon and Core CPUs. We'll see if this creates an opportunity for competitors like AMD and Qualcomm, especially as they bring laptops to market with longer-than-ever battery life. To help improve supply, Intel is investing $1 billion on current 14nm production lines in in Oregon, Arizona, Ireland and Israel. As far as its repeatedly-delayed "Cannon Lake" 10nm CPU technology that saw a limited debut earlier this year, the CEO said "yields are improving" and that the company expects to have volume production at some point in 2019.
Tesla’s Gigafactory might be behind a global battery shortage
Tesla has been besieged by reports of production delays and quality control issues lately, and now it's coming under fire for problems at its Gigafactory, which have led to a global shortage of cylindrical batteries. According to sources quoted by etnews, it's now "impossible" to purchase cylindrical batteries in Japan -- where most of the world's electronics manufacturing happens -- because Gigafactory has hoovered up the supplies needed to create them, but has failed to do so.
Apple Watch finally arrives at Apple Stores in two weeks
Apple says the Watch will finally hit its US retail stores in two weeks, and it expects to clear up most of its May pre-order backlog by then, as well. The wearable is also coming to seven more countries starting June 26th, namely Italy, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, Singapore, Switzerland and South Korea. Folks there will also be able to grab it at Apple's online and retail stores, along with other select upscale outlets. The news is a pretty good sign that Apple is beginning to clear its order backlog, though it emphasized that demand had "surpassed our expectations."
Russia's latest ISS supply ship is spinning out of control
The International Space Station has yet another problem on its hands. Russia's Progress 59 supply ship (you're looking at Progress 47 above) appears to have suffered a communications breakdown shortly after entering orbit, and it's been spinning out of control ever since. As you can see in the dizzying video below, it's not about to dock with the ISS any time soon. Ground control had originally hoped that it could get things in order for an April 30th rendezvous, but it's scuttling those plans unless it can rein in this wayward spacecraft. It's safe to say that the station crew would like a recovery as soon as possible. When Progress 59 is carrying 6,000 pounds of food, fuel and other essentials, a significant delay could cause more than a few headaches. [Image credit: NASA]
Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge will be in short supply
Samsung mobile head J.K. Shin has warned that supply constraints could hamper sales of its Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone. According to Reuters, Shin revealed production yields of the phone's unique curved display are low, meaning that the company may not be able to keep up with demand. Samsung is "working hard to resolve the difficulty in supply," but yields could be low "for a while." The issue will not affect the vanilla Galaxy S6, which has a more conventional flat display.
Sony: PS4 demand is challenging European supply
The PlayStation 4 is in high demand for the second holiday season in a row, according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Andrew House. Without offering specific sales numbers, House told Reuters that the console is potentially "going to be quite inventory challenged." Shipments for the PS4 reached 13.5 million consoles as of the end of October. "I'm not going to say you won't be able to find a PlayStation 4," House added. "I think it's going to be kind of hand to mouth in terms of that market." The CEO noted that sales for the system in December were in line with Sony's projections, though it was a "tougher" month thanks to the $50 holiday price cut by its main competitor in the United States, Microsoft's Xbox One. While its gaming division is thriving, Sony upped its loss forecast to $2 billion in September due to struggling smartphone sales and opted to not renew its FIFA sponsorship at the beginning of this month to spend more money on structural reforms. [Image: Sony]
Nintendo of Europe to keep 'regular supply' of Amiibos
Nintendo of Europe plans on replenishing its sold-out Amiibo stock following word that some of the figurines will be discontinued. The publisher told GameSpot that its "supplies of Amiibo are currently available in the European market." The statement runs slightly counter to that of Nintendo of America yesterday, which acknowledged that "due to shelf space constraints, other figures likely will not return to the market once they have sold through their initial shipment." "We are continually aiming to always have a regular supply of Amiibo brought into the marketplace and there are many waves of Amiibo to come," Nintendo of Europe added. The concerns began with a tweet from Canadian retailer VideoGamesPlus, which said that Nintendo discontinued the Marth, Wii Fit Trainer and Animal Crossing Villager Amiibo toys. Nintendo of Europe noted the popularity of the figures, adding that "it's always possible that a few retailers may have sold out." Regardless, we'll always have our ass-kicking, borderline-sentient Mario Amiibo to toy with. [Image: Nintendo]
HTC overcomes supply issues, will double HTC One production capacity this month
After months of supply issues and courtroom wrangling, HTC might have finally put its hardware woes behind it. The company's North Asian president, Jack Tong, let slip that production capacity for the HTC One will double this month and continue to increase in June to meet "strong demand." Tong also casually dropped into conversation that the J Butterfly saw its own sales double in Japan when it became free on contract -- so perhaps those second-quarter financial results won't make for such depressing reading.
Galaxy S 4 launches tomorrow in South Korea, despite Samsung admitting supply issues
Smitten with Samsung's Galaxy S 4? Well, if you're looking to pick on up right now, you'd best book a red-eye flight to South Korea, where it'll go on sale in the next 24 hours. The 5-inch 1080p flagship will arrive on all three of the country's main carriers, with an unspecified global roll-out following on Friday. Meanwhile, the company has also commented on "supply chain problems" affecting its roll-out of the S4. In a statement to Sky News, Samsung said that initial supplies of the handset may be limited "due to overwhelming global demand" and its limited stock of memory components. The pinch is already being felt in the US, as both Sprint and T-Mobile reassess their launch dates in-store.
Tim Cook: We should have waited until 2013 to release new iMacs
During Apple's earnings conference call on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook fielded an analyst's question regarding Apple's product releases during the Fall 2012 quarter and delivered a surprisingly candid answer. Addressing the shipping delays that plagued Apple's new iMacs, Cook articulated that Apple should had waited to release its new iMac models until this year. "I don't spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it," Cook explained. "If we could run it over, frankly, I would have announced the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product." Cook explained that despite supply constraints for the iPad mini, he would not have changed its release date, because they were still able to get the device out to millions of customers. While supply problems for new Apple products are not uncommon -- the company tends to push its contract manufacturers and component suppliers to their limits in pursuit of "insanely great" devices -- the shipment delays associated with Apple's recent iMac refresh were atypically long. Since its release in November, Apple struggled to keep up with demand. For quite some time, shipping delays for the all-in-one desktop computer stretched for as long as three to five weeks. It wasn't until early March that Apple seemed to get a grasp on production issues, resulting in a much more reasonable shipping time of just one to three business days. Apple is always keen on pushing the envelope in terms of manufacturing processes, and it's suspected that Apple's iMac supply issues were rooted in a new lamination process used to keep the new iMac screen as thin as possible.
The Art of Wushu: Winning in market PvP
Last time on the Art of Wushu, I promised I would write on how to sell production crafts. Crafting is a big deal in Age of Wushu, so it seemed like a reasonable topic to cover. However, I realized doing so would probably be a mistake. Why? If you followed my advice from two weeks ago, congratulations. You probably noticed a huge nosedive in a few markets: hemp, ramie, iron, and mint all took a huge hit. It's a bit flattering to see how I can write a post on what to sell and readers like you guys take it to heart, flooding the market with supply and crashing the value of these commodities. If I gave advice on production crafting, the same thing would happen. Instead, this week I'm going to talk about real market strategy. Pointing out things that sell doesn't help you if the market takes a nose-dive. Understanding supply and demand curves, market equilibrium, and the importance of market diversity are all long-term tools that will help you regardless of what you're selling.
Daily Update for February 4, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple now tracks hours for 1M supply chain workers
In the latest update to the company's Supplier Responsibility page, Apple has changed the estimated number of workers in its supply chain from 900,000 to 1 million, MacRumors reports. Along with the new, higher figure, the monthly tracked Work-Hour Compliance chart has also been updated, showing a bit of a dip from the previous month from around 90 percent down to 88 percent for November. Work-hour compliance hit a high of 97 percent earlier this year in July and August before dipping dramatically to around 87 percent in September. The figure then recovered a bit in October before dropping again last month.
Apple, Qualcomm tried to purchase exclusive access to TSMC chip production
Bloomberg is reporting that both Apple and Qualcomm were turned down by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in attempts by the two companies to invest cash and gain exclusive access to smartphone chips. Each company proposed investing more than US$1 billion in order to have TSMC set aside chip production capacity exclusively for them. Qualcomm and Apple are both trying to secure the chipmaking capacity to satisfy demand for smartphones, and either one of the deals would provide Apple with an alternative to Samsung -- which currently builds the primary silicon for both the iPhone and iPad. For Qualcomm, it's a necessary deal as well. The company's earnings are being limited by shortages of mobile phone chips it designs, and it no longer operates its own factories. TSMC is willing to devote a couple of factories to a single customer, but wants to retain control of its plants and doesn't need cash for investments, according to TSMC executives. The company is wary of dedicating a facility to one customer or product, since if the product or technology changes, they're stuck with a plant that requires a significant investment in order to repurpose it. For the present time, negotiations are apparently continuing although TSMC, Apple, and Qualcomm are not commenting.
Two sources talk of Apple iPhone event around September 12th, part sales back it up (update: one more clue)
Apple's plans for its next iPhone refresh may be getting very tangible, very quickly. It all started when iMore heard that Apple was preparing to hold an event unveiling the new hardware on September 12th, with a launch the following week on September 21st. Although the relative newcomer to the iPhone release date rumor game is still building its track record, that claim may have just gotten some extra meat: AllThingsD is joining in the chorus and touts its own sources pointing to an event in the same timeframe. While it's almost a month earlier in the year than Apple's iPhone 4S event was in 2011, it's supported by an Apple filing with the SEC showing a sharp uptick in supply purchasing during the spring, which it would need to start production for the fall. All of it is still rumor, of course, but past experience suggests that iOS fans may want to plan any September camping trips for the Apple Store line late in the month, not Labor Day weekend. Update: Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, who's well-known for his accurate one-word confirmations and denials of rumors, just posted his trademark "yep."
Flameseeker Chronicles: WvW primer
Welcome to the PvP primer, the post with everything you didn't think you wanted to know about PvP content in Guild Wars 2. If you're one of the people saying that Guild Wars 2 is a PvP-centric game and you might do personal story for a break every now and again, this probably isn't going to be new information to you. Think of it as something of crib notes for the uninitiated. Tempted to get into PvP but not sure where to start? Unsure if WvW is your speed? Let's start at the very beginning: There are two main types of PvP in Guild Wars 2. There's world vs. world (WvW), which pits three servers against each other in grand-scale, pitched battles. The other type is structured PvP (sPvP is becoming popular as an abbreviation for that), which takes two different forms but involves smaller, quicker battles on special maps. This week, we'll be looking at WvW.
New iPad's online availability improves
Apple's done a fantastic job meeting demand for the third generation iPad. The company sold three million units in the first launch weekend and still has inventory in stores. As SlashGear noticed, it also narrowed the estimated shipping time from two to three weeks down to one to two weeks. This is great news for people who want to get an iPad without waiting too long for it, not so good news for scalpers looking to charge double the price of the iPad because of low supply-high demand. [Via SlashGear]
