Coretronic Corp, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures panels for United States tech giant Apple Inc, is halting production at one of its mainland factories due to dwindling² iPad sales.

中强光电是台湾一家为美国技术大亨——苹果公司生产镶嵌板的企业。近日，由于iPad销量不佳，导致该公司内地一家工厂闭门停产。

The plant, located in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, has stopped operations and filed applications to liquidate³ its assets, the National Business Daily said on Tuesday.

每日经济新闻报周二称，坐落在江苏省南京市的工厂现在已经停产，正在存档清算资产。

The factory produces liquid crystal display backlight modules⁴ for iPads. It has more than 1,500 employees, and churned out 1 million units a month at its peak. It was set up in 2005 by Coretronic (Nanjing) Co Ltd.

这家工厂在2005年时由中强光有限公司建设，为iPad生产液晶显示器背光模块。该厂有1500名员工，最高记录每月能够生产一百万个零件。

The National Business Daily said the factory has no orders to process after it manufactured the last batch⁵ of products earlier this month. It is expected to complete liquidation⁶ by the end of this year, the report said.

每日经济新闻报称，在这月月初完成生产最后一笔订单后，该厂便再没有了生产任务。据预测，在今年底之前，清算工作即可完成。

A human resources official at the Nanjing plant confirmed to China Daily the factory had gone out of business, but declined to offer more details, like whether its workers will be laid off.

南京工厂的人力资源部门向中国日报证实工厂确实已经没有订单，但是拒绝透露更多细节，例如是否员工将会被解雇。

Coretronic was not immediately available for comment. The company is one of the top three panel manufacturers in the world. Specializing in making LCD backlight modules and optical devices, it also runs at least six other production bases in the mainland, including in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

中强光电没有立即给出解释。该公司是世界上生产镶嵌板的三巨头之一，其特长领域是背光模组和光学器件。其在内地还有至少六家生产基地，包括上海和广州。

The closure comes amid weakening global demand for iPads. Data from research firm International Data Corporation show that in the second quarter of this year, iPad sales dropped by 17.9 percent to about 10 million units, marking the sixth straight quarterly decline for Apple's tablet business.

此次工厂关闭的直接原因是iPad销量下滑。国际数据公司的资料显示今年的第二季度，iPad销量下滑了17.9%，只售出了一千万件，标志着苹果的平板电脑业务连续第六个季度下滑。

Gene Cao, a senior analyst⁷ at market research firm Forrester Research Inc, said the poor performance of iPads will continue in the upcoming quarters.

曹金妮是市场研究公司—福雷斯特研究公司的资深研究员，她认为，苹果iPad销量下滑将会持续到下个季度。

"When Apple released bigger-screen smartphones such as iPhone Plus, it was fully aware of the possible encroachment⁸ on iPads," Cao said. "After all, when handsets with large screens are good enough to meet consumer demand for entertainment, why would they need a tablet?"

“当苹果公司发布如iPhone Plus大屏智能手机的时候，就应该认识到这会冲击到iPad的销量”。曹金妮说。“毕竟，当手持大屏电子设备已经能够满足娱乐需要的时候，谁还会需要平板设备呢？”

What further hurts the sales of iPads is that customers rarely renew their tablets. It is normal for users to buy a new smartphone within a year, but they are less willing to change their current iPads for a newer version, experts said.

专家认为，已持有平板设备的消费者迟迟不换新设备同样给iPad的销量带来冲击。对于用户来说，一年换一个手机很正常，但是他们很少会每年换最新版的iPad。

To breathe new life into its iPad business, Apple launched iPad Pro¹ in September. It is a bigger version of iPad with a 12.9 inch screen. The product, equipped with a smart keyboard and a stylus, is designed to perform like a desktop⁹ computer.

为了给iPad注入生机，苹果公司在九月份发布了iPad Pro。这是比iPad更大的版本，屏幕有12.9英寸。此产品配备智能键盘和智能笔，像一台电脑一样。

"iPad Pro may be a major growth driver for Apple's tablet lineup in the next year, but it is targeting corporate¹⁰ clients, which means the demand will be far smaller than that for iPads, which is positioned as a consumer electronics product," Cao said.

曹金妮说：“iPad Pro将会是明年苹果公司平板产品线的主力军，但是它只针对公司客户，这也就以为着它的需求度比iPad要小的多，定位为电子消费产品。”