Apple over the last couple of years have been splashing the cash, not on fancy parties or expensive offices, although we’re sure they do, but they’ve been throwing money at component makers for the last 18 months.
They were in talks with Samsung to buy 7.8 billion dollars worth of components last year – now there’s nothing wrong with this – there’s no doubt that they have the demand the iPhone and iPad are testament to their colossal demands.
Today digitimes is reporting that Apple is occupying up to 60% of the global touch screen panel production from the likes of Wintek and TPK – this is resulting in a major shortage for the competition – especially important due to the amount of new tablet on show at MWC.
The impact on consumers, according DigiTimes‘ sources at upstream component makers, is that tablet PC makers are unable to ship enough product to match orders due to component shortages. The issue is especially troublesome for second-tier tablet hopefuls who must compete with the likes of HP, RIM, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Dell for the scraps.
Whether this was planned or just part of the economics of the market – it’s not sure -but there’s no doubt that if Apple’s competition are struggling for fill orders this is only going to play into Apple’s hand. They will be able to meet demand in 2011 and the competition will struggle.