Apple, which is also tapping other suppliers such as Japan Display and South Korea's LG Display Co for the new, thinner displays, is planning a major launch on September 12. That has raised expectations that the product will be its latest iPhone model.

Sharp President Takashi Okuda said on August 2 that his company would begin mass production and shipments from its Kameyama LCD plant in central Japan this month. The facility is widely known to make screens for Apple, but Sharp has declined to acknowledge that Apple is a customer.

Kameyama "is operational," Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said, declining to give details of either output or shipment levels.

(Additional reporting by Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)

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