Tablet to fuel Taiwanese battery makers growth

Taiwanese battery makers are well positioned to benefit from the growing tablet computer market due to an increasing demand for the lithium cells that power them, a local researcher said Monday.

The emerging market of tablet devices, with projected sales of 54.8 million units in 2011, will strengthen demand for the lithium cells that are mostly made by Taiwanese companies, said Tung Chung-ming, a researcher with Taiwan's semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), at a seminar in Taipei.

Two Taiwanese cell makers alone, Simplo Technology Co. and Dynapack International Technology Corp., supply 60 percent of the lithium polymer batteries Apple Inc. uses to power its popular iPad.

"As the major suppliers to Apple, Taiwanese cell makers have been acknowledged as quality firms, helping them compete for more battery orders from other tablet brands," Tung said.

But the smaller and lighter battery type used in tablet PCs have a lower average price than those used in regular notebooks, and they will likely hurt Taiwanese battery makers' gross margins, he said.

"It depends on if the tablets will replace the use of notebooks or create a new market for cell manufacturers," he said.

International PC vendors such as Acer, AsusTek, Samsung, ViewSonic, Dell and HP have unveiled or are ready to launch their own tablet devices to grab a slice of the potential boom started by Apple's iPad.

The ITRI expects that Apple will continue to dominate the global tablet market in 2011 with a 70 percent share, followed by smartphone brands with 20 percent and regular notebook makers with 10 percent.

Meanwhile, global shipments of the tablet device will reach 12.28 million units before the end of this year, then grow by 183 percent to 34.81 million units in 2011 and by 45.7 percent to 50 million units in 2012, according to a study by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC).

The rapid growing popularity of tablet computers since the launch of iPad will make them the third biggest mobile device segment in the final quarter of 2010 and for all of 2011, said market tracker Digitimes Research.

However, the world's No. 2 PC maker Acer Inc. said on Saturday the global market for notebook computers will grow between 20 percent and 25 percent next year on the back of rising demand in emerging markets.

On market speculation that the emergence of tablet computers will replace personal computers, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said growing demand in emerging markets will help drive demand for notebooks.

As a result, he forecast that the compound annual growth rate for global notebook shipments would remain at more than 20 percent for the next few years. (By Jeffrey Wu) ENDITEM/ls

Via Focus Taiwan