Apple Plans Ping!
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Posted on 02/17/2011 11:06:28 AM PST by Swordmaker
In order to achieve its internal goal of shipping 40 million iPad products in 2011, Apple has occupied close to 60% of the global touch panel capacity causing tight supply among Apple's competitors, according to sources from upstream component makers.
Sources from tablet PC makers also pointed out that the component shortage is causing their shipment volumes to be unable to catch up with their orders, especially for second-tier players. Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard (HP) also competing for related components, second-tier players are already out of the game, the sources noted.
The sources pointed out that glass capacitive touch panels are the part that the second-tier players are unable to acquire, although thin-film capacitive touch panel makers are already capable of making their products fit onto tablet PCs, since thin-film technology still has obvious differences in terms of durability and feel compared to glass technology, despite that thin-film panels will still see demand from smartphones, tablet PCs are expected to be dominated by glass panels.
Sources from iPad distributors pointed out that in 2010, Apple's order forecasts to its OEM partners were all high and the biggest problem on the supply side was not capacity, but low yields of touch panels. In 2011, Apple's strategy of taking up most of the capacity should help the company quickly expand its sales, while reducing its competitors' shipment growth.
Several notebook brands such as Samsung Electronics, Acer and HP have all started turning to smaller touch screen suppliers helping players such as Sintek Photronic, Egalax-empia Technology (EETI), AimCore Technology and J Touch to see increasing utilization. Samsung's recent cooperation with Sintek was also meant to secure related supplies to avoid shortages ruining the vendor's product plans.
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Good. That’ll learn ‘em!
There are component shortages in hi-tech all the time, and they’re always temporary. In the meantime, Apple is losing market share to Android, and the tough deal for publishers (30% cut vs Google’s 10), as reported in today’s WSJ, won’t help. Then, later this year, comes Nokia with Win 7 telephones, and they ain’t rotary. It’s getting interrrrrrrestink!
Which is why Apple secures massive quantities of things like screens and NAND flash storage far in advance. They are immune to spot shortages and price hikes.
In the meantime, Apple is losing market share to Android, and the tough deal for publishers (30% cut vs Google’s 10),
I wonder what the stats will look like now that the iPhone is on two carriers in the US. Plus, don't forget the biggest e-publisher, Amazon, with the Kindle. Apple has better terms than they do.
Then, later this year, comes Nokia with Win 7 telephones, and they ain’t rotary.
WP7 has been langishing since its introduction since it doesn't bring anything new to the market. It's quite possible Nokia's leverage will make it popular. But that leverage is shrinking extremely fast, so they'd bettery hurry -- but not so much that they screw it up.
Nokia is #1 outside of these shores, so that’s the leverage they bring. I’m wondering if it’s not a good time dump some of Apple stock. It’s definitely a critical time for the company, all of the above, plus Steve’s health.
On the other hand, in a couple months they’ll have new versions of their key products, iPhone and iPad (and most likely the iPod), that, as is usually the case, the competition will have to start chasing.
Nokia was my favorite long before Apple thought of making a phone, but I'm worried they've slid too far. Their smartphone marketshare has been dropping drastically every year since around 2007. That plus a WP7 switch means abandoning all existing developers, hitching onto a platform with few existing applications (although a lot of potential developers). Even if a decent Nokia WP7 phone is released this year, I don't think they could stauch the arterial market share bleeding until at least 2013. By then, who knows that Android, RIM and Apple will have done to their marketshare. Nokia could end up stabilizing at a lower position than the others.
I don't think e-book sales terms will have any impact on cell phone hardware sales. My iPhone has Apple's iBooks, Kindle and Google Books apps; I can buy from any of the three, and if any one of them takes the lead in prices or titles available, I'm there.
“Apple is losing market share to Android”
I see the market as growing. Apple continues to sell more and more products as do the Android producers. The market is simply frowing. It isn’t static, so a 10% market share tomorrow has more customers than a 10% market share does today. I frankly love where the market is headed and I am glad to see all the players. Well, maybe not that ugly Win7 phone interface. That’s horrible!
Pretty much everything that goes wrong for someone somewhere in the world will be blamed on A) the Jews B) right-wingers, and C) Apple Inc.
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