“Market demand for lithium-polymer batteries, which are used mainly in products such as tablet PCs or notebooks with ultra-thin designs, is expected to increase significantly as ultra-thin designs are estimated by Intel to be adopted into 40% of consumer notebooks at the end of 2012,” Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes.
“However, since Apple already booked up most of the available lithium-polymer battery capacity in the IT market, players such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer are currently searching aggressively for new supply sources, according to sources from battery players,” Lee and Tsai report.
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“Apple is currently the only PC brand that largely adopts lithium-polymer batteries for its products, while HP, Acer and Asustek only have a small amount of ultra-thin models using the battery due to low availability because of limited production capacity and expensive price,” Lee and Tsai report.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s using their war chest to remove the toner from the wannabes’ copiers. It’s a much faster and more effective method than slogging through the courts in expensive, years-long efforts to stop the knockoff parade.
There’s the dividend.
Not really a dividend as far as shareholders are concerned. Only Apple sees that as a dividend which it’s putting into its own pocket and not passing it on to investors. So, that’s quite a bit of difference from a true dividend.
Actually as far as most if not all apple shareholders are concerned, it’s exactly the dividend that we all want and expect.
You are a stoodge thas has been pointed out by many recently and don’t have the slightest clue about what Apple is, stands for, or what it passes on. Most Apple investors are users and customers that know full well why and what they invest in, anyone needing your short advice or viewpoints better invest in Lodsys.
That’s Apple with a AAA rating…
… the dividend potential in the stock market, I have to agree with breeze. Many terms have different meanings depending on context, and there was no reason for you to mistake this.
Apple is with the vast majority of tech firms that do not, and never have, issue dividends.
Should be, “WiseA$$hat”
There, I fixed it for you…
Amen to that!
““However, since Apple already booked up most of the available lithium-polymer battery capacity in the IT market, ”
I call BS…. Apple makes their own batteries and so has 100% of the Apple lithium-polymer battery supply. Other companies must be searching for the lithium itself. ???
Just a thought,
en
DigiTimes has long history of nonsensical reporting about Apple and its supply chain.
The run with ridiculous “news” about Apple doing short iPhones or about Samsung being provider of IPS screens for iPads (though the company never had license for IPS technology, thus only using usual TN itself until starting production of it own type PLS matrices this spring).
DigiTimes also ran countless stories about how Apple bought all of tablet screens possible, even though almost no one besides Apple actually buys IPS screens for production, and only few chose to use the same 4:3 aspect ratio.
(Actually, you can not count how many DigiTimes stories is just tabloid nonsense, ignorant, completely made up fantasy.)
apple doesn’t actually build their own batteries, they are very active in making their own tech, but still rely on others to build them.
Lithium-polymer batteries are not everybody’s piece of cake in terms of production, so these are done in Japan Not by Sony, not by whatever Chinese company — by Apple’s own subsidiary.
Strategery
Toner from the copiers…..
Very funny!
@eldernorm,
Apple doesn’t do any manufacturing any more and hasn’t for several years. Everything is bought from various suppliers and assembled at companies like Foxconn.
What about the aluminum unibody plant?
Has anyone seen the blatant knockoff that Samsung made of the S3 craptop that is based off the MacBook Pro? They might as well co-opt the Apple R&D department into a Samsung subsidiary. The only incongruity was the absence of a fruit logo on the back of the lid. HP does the same thing with their Envy line of crapbooks.
HP and Acer can’t get LiPo batteries!?! Aren’t they the #1 and #2 PC makers in the world, now?
Acer is moving to gerbil powered laptops.
These people claimed the same thing about Apple cornering the market for tablet displays in order to block out the competition despite at the time there was no competition. A company attempting to meet overwhelming demand is doing just that. You buy as many components as possible because you can sell as many as can be made.
Where would the component vendors be if they promised components to these companies that are now decreasing production after the components have been built in advance? At least Apple is paying up front. These people need to stop spreading malicious stories about Apple only buying components to block other companies production.
If HP is willing to ante up front money to component vendors to increase production, they should be able to do so. I think component vendors would be happy to try to accomodate as many buyers as possible as long as they get the money up front to increase capacity.
That’s what fiscal discipline will reward in the final analysis. Cash is king; debt is not. Apple pays with real cash; the competition pay with junk bonds.
The other makers should source a better, thinner and lighter battery like;
LiFePo4
LiFeMnPo4
LiSi
SiFe
Or even go with lithium cobalt batteries and get damn close to 24 hours usage per charge. It could easily run an iPhone for a month per charge.
LiPo – Lithium Polymer is dangerous if broken, over charged or under charged but has a great discharge rating but who needs 25C in a laptop? You only need 2C so a safe LiFePo4 would be fine. Plenty of suppliers there. Try pingping in China.
Maybe acer and hp should hit the local hobby shops and buy all the rc car and heli lipos on the shelves 😉