Growing adoption of lithium-polymer batteries struggles with Apple's dominance

For a long time Apple was the only major PC maker to adopt bulk lithium polymer batteries, especially those used in the ultra-thin MacBook Air. Now, with the industry increasingly tending towards similar designs, others players they are also interested in this component and face difficulties.

Apple laptop battery

O DigiTimes he said today that OEMs like HP, Acer, Dell and ASUS are having to go after new suppliers of lithium-polymer batteries, since the biggest ones already have their orders practically all dominated by Apple.

The reason for this “delay” in the adoption of such batteries is that they cost an average of 60% more than other conventional lithium-ion batteries, but these no longer fit in ultra-thin designs. Intel estimates that by the end of 2012, about 40% of notebook computers on the market will already have super-compact designs and will need batteries of this type.

The two largest battery suppliers in Taiwan Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology already have 20-30% of their deliveries focused on lithium polymer batteries in 2011. Overall, the technology today has only 10% market penetration; we'll see how this scenario will be in a year.