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 Apple Inc. opened a production laboratory in northern Taiwan where engineers are developing new display technologies, according to people with knowledge of the facility. 
 
 The Apple building in Longtan has at least 50 engineers and other workers creating new screens for devices including iPhones and iPads, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. Apple has recruited from local display maker AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., which used to own the building, the people said. 
 
 Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple in Cupertino, California, declined to comment. 
 
 Apple began operating the lab this year as it aims to make products thinner, lighter, brighter and more energy-efficient. Engineers are developing more-advanced versions of the liquid-crystal displays currently used in iPhones, iPads and Mac personal computers, the people said. Apple also is keen to move to organic light-emitting diodes, which are even thinner and don’t require a backlight, they said. 
 
 Apple Gets More Bang for Its R&D Buck 
 
 Samsung, Sharp 
 
 Making its iPhones and iPads slimmer and longer-lasting with each generation has been a hallmark of Apple, helping drive $178 billion in annual sales from the two product categories. 
 
 By working directly on the development of display technologies, Apple can reduce reliance on the technology developed by suppliers such as Samsung Electronics Co., LG Display Co., Sharp Corp. and Japan Display Inc. Instead, the company can develop the production processes in-house and outsource to smaller manufacturers such as Taiwan’s AU Optronics or Innolux Corp. 
 
 Shares of AU Optronics surged 7 percent, the most in four months, in Taipei and Innolux jumped 2.6 percent. Japan Display dropped 3.9 percent in Tokyo to the lowest in more than two months, and Sharp fell 1.6 percent. 
 
 Job Postings 
 
 Apple does the bulk of its research at its headquarters in Cupertino and outsources the manufacturing of almost all devices and components to suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group and Japan Display. The iPhone maker also employs scientists and engineers globally to develop materials and manufacturing technologies. 
 
 Apple continues looking for engineers to work at its display panel facilities, according to job postings on LinkedIn Corp.’s website. 
 
 Tucked in a corner of Longtan Science Park, between a forest and the building site for a new biotechnology factory, the structure shows no outward indications of belonging to the world’s most valuable company. Fifty kilometers (31 miles) from downtown Taipei and within an hour’s drive of the Foxconn headquarters, the white-tiled factory displays no corporate signage, a stark contrast to neighboring plants emblazoned with 3-foot-tall logos for Leotek Electronics Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AU Optronics. 
 
 Qualcomm Displays 
 
 A short driveway, a half-dozen steps and sliding glass doors lead to a counter and a receptionist in front of an Apple logo on the wall. That sign, and an iMac displaying Apple’s standard visitor registration screen, are the only visible indicators Apple resides here. 
 
 The receptionist wouldn’t provide the name or contact details for someone who could talk about the facility. Guards at an outside security post also declined to give contact details for anyone responsible. 
 
 Records from the Hsinchu Science Park management office, which manages the Longtan facility, show Apple moved into the factory in April and that Qualcomm Panel Manufacturing Ltd. had occupied the site from 2008. 
 
 Records from the economics ministry show Apple last amended its Taiwan registration in October. The form now shows the Longtan address, changed from an earlier listing in downtown Taipei, as the headquarters of Taiwan Apple LLC. The site was where Qualcomm tried to develop its own displays called Mirasol. 
 
 Samsung, which makes both components and consumer devices, is among the few suppliers currently offering smartphones with OLED displays, which typically are more expensive to produce than LCDs. 
 
 On Monday, a small group of workers with Apple ID badges around their necks stepped off the property for a smoking break amid the hum of industrial filters. They declined to comment on the building’s purpose and what they’re working on. 
 
 — With assistance by Adam Satariano ||||| Apple has long relied on partners like Samsung, LG, and Sharp for cutting-edge technology to use in iPhones and iPads, but the company is is quietly developing its own brighter, lighter, and thinner iPhone and iPad displays at a new, top-secret lab in Taiwan. 
 
 Apple took over a production facility once occupied by Qualcomm and has recruited some 50 workers to develop new OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays, according to a Bloomberg report. Engineers at the lab are also working on improved LCDs (liquid-crystal displays), which are advanced versions of what Apple already uses in iPhones and iPads. 
 
 Of course, Apple isn’t confirming or denying the activities afoot at its new lab. 
 
 Why this matters: A lab isn’t a plant, so it looks like Apple will continue to rely on manufacturers like Foxconn to churn out parts. But the company is known for exerting control over every detail of its hardware, so it’s not surprising that it plans to take over such an integral part of the development process. Thinner, lighter displays could mean thinner, lighter iPhones and iPads, or they could free up space for larger batteries with longer life, which is a long-requested feature from even the most diehard Apple fans. Apple clearly recognizes the need for more powerful batteries—the company just last week introduced its first smart battery case for the iPhone. ||||| 
 
 Rumor has it that Apple is thinking about small screens again. (Xaume Olleros/Bloomberg) 
 
 Apple is rumored to be releasing a new, smaller-screened iPhone — the 6c, according to 9 to 5 Mac, as well as a next-generation Apple Watch in March. Watch-wise, that would put things right on track with the company's normal habit of releasing products every year. 
 
 But the report about the introduction of a 4-inch phone is particularly intriguing because it fits into a sort of trend from Apple that's emerged over the past few years: The company appears to be listening more closely to its customers. 
 
 Apple is famous — or notorious, depending on whom you ask — for eschewing the wisdom of the crowd when it comes to its products. Instead it opts to follow its own vision. One could argue -- and many have argued -- that such a strategy has helped Apple be innovative rather than iterative. The company's biggest products came from a place largely devoid of focus groups or market research. Apple, particularly co-founder Steve Jobs, really seemed to take to heart that old apocryphal Henry Ford chestnut: that asking "the people" what they wanted would have produced a faster horse instead of a car. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have all been hailed as products we didn't even know we wanted. 
 
 Lately, however, there seems to a little more reactivity going on in Cupertino. Otherwise, why build a smaller phone right now when every market analysis tells you that the way to growth is with larger screens? Likely, the answer is because there are vocal Apple customers out there who don't want a phone with a screen more than 4 inches. I know, because they email me. These are people who don't care much about visual media and who want phones that fit in their darn pockets. And there may also be more practical reasons. With Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty predicting that Apple could see its first smartphone sale slide (in actual sales, not just sales growth) it may make some sense to appeal to that segment of the market even if it's not the hot one to pursue. 
 
 Being reactive can be a good thing. Apple was late to shift its phone design to incorporate larger screens, but it finally introduced larger screens after seeing how consumer use was shifting. More time watching video, making videos and taking pictures means that a big screen became more useful to the general consumer. Shifting to a larger screen helped Apple continue its trend of record-breaking sales for the bigger-screened phones. 
 
 It can also have its drawbacks. As Will Oremus at Slate wrote last week, Apple's latest battery case — a somewhat unsightly accessory — could also be taken as a reactive move to complaints about the battery life on the iPhone 6s. And if this is what Apple listening to its customers looks like, he says, he could do without it: 
 
 Yes, you hear a lot of moaning about the iPhone’s battery life, but guess why? Because people keep buying the things anyway. To the vast majority of iPhone buyers, a shortage of power is an annoyance, but not a deal-breaker. If Apple stopped making the prettiest phones, that would be a deal-breaker. 
 
 The same is arguably true of the iPhone 5c, a lower-end iPhone that investors and analysts clamored for Apple to make to serve "emerging" smartphone markets. It (relatively) flopped, after the company found that consumers weren't that interested in getting a practical iPhone — they wanted the halo of the brand. 
 
 Expanding Apple's carefully edited product line by adding another into the mix likely isn't something the company takes lightly. It's a point of pride for Apple chief executive Tim Cook to say that all of the company's products could fit on one table. (He may have to amend that statement if the company's rumored car ever comes out.) It can't get too far afield from that. 
 
 In a 2012 Harvard Business Review article, Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson said that one of the co-founder's lasting lessons of leadership was focusing on product, not profit. Jobs himself told Isaacson that companies decline when a desire for profit overtakes a desire for good products: 
 
 “I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies,” Jobs told me: They make some great products, but then the sales and marketing people take over the company, because they are the ones who can juice up profits. “When the sales guys run the company, the product guys don’t matter so much, and a lot of them just turn off. It happened at Apple when [former CEO John] Sculley came in, which was my fault, and it happened when [former CEO Steve] Ballmer took over at Microsoft.” 
 
 That's not to say that going back to a smaller screen is going to be the end of the world for Apple. It could be a great hit. But what Apple has to balance, perhaps more than any other company, is its desire for mass-market appeal and its reputation for carefully-curated quality.
– Apple recently opened a "secret laboratory" in Taiwan, Bloomberg reports, though no logos or Apple signage underscore that fact on the outside of the building in Longtan. Guards and a receptionist provided no information on what goes on inside the building; neither did workers outside on a smoke break. And an Apple spokesperson refused to comment. So what is going on in this mysterious Apple outpost? Sadly it seems it's just a bunch of engineers working on the next generation of iPad and iPhone screens. Sources speaking anonymously tell Bloomberg the laboratory contains at least 50 workers trying to make brighter and more energy-efficient screens that are thinner and weigh less than the current ones. By developing its own screens, Apple would no longer have to rely on technologies from other companies, such as Sharp and Samsung. Macworld reports this makes sense, since Apple wants to have as much control over its hardware as possible. In addition to better displays, smaller screens could also mean more room for much-demanded longer-lasting batteries. Perhaps coincidentally, though in that vein, the Washington Post notes a new rumor that Apple is coming out with a new generation of smaller iPhones, possibly due in March.