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Apple’s practicing its self-imposed rule of supplier polygamy this week and Japan’s Nikkei is telling us all about it. It started off on Monday, when we learned that Toshiba’s throwing down some cash to build a new smartphone display production plant, with Apple as the key investor and subsequent consumer, and today we’re hearing pretty much the same story, only with Sharp playing the role of Japanese producer to Apple’s hardware whims. A “large portion” of the $1.2 billion cost — identical to what Toshiba’s said to be spending — of expanding Sharp’s Kameyama factory is expected to be shouldered by Jobs’ cash-rich crew, a postulation also confirmed by Reuters , who’s managed to dig up a pair of sources agreeing with the Nikkei . Our own Japanese team reports that Sharp has made its expansion plans official, but obviously there’s nary a peep about any Apple connection, while DigiTimes says Toshiba has outright denied any involvement with Cupertino. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the iPhone 7 teardowns to find out. Sharp investing $1.2b in expanding smartphone LCD production, Apple fingered as the major client originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink