supply

Apple's reign as king of the tablet market should stay strong for at least the next couple of years, says a new report from iSuppli.

Though a variety of tech players have been cooking up their own tablet devices, no true competitor is likely to surface until next year, giving Apple a dominant share of the market through 2012 if not further, according to iSuppli.

This year, the iPad is expected to account for 74.1 percent of all global tablet shipments, with the remaining percentage left mostly to an assortment of older PC-style tablets. Next year, it will … Read more

Apple is set to become the world's second largest semiconductor buyer in 2011, another sign of the shift in the balance of power in the chip world.

Driven by the success of the iPad and iPhone, Apple is expected to pass Samsung as the world's No. 2 chip buyer in 2011, second only to Hewlett-Packard, according to market researcher iSuppli.

The firm is projecting that Apple's semiconductor spending in 2011 will hit $16.2 billion, surpassing Samsung Electronics, which is forecast to be at about $13.9 billion. HP will stay in the No. 1 position with $… Read more

AT&T's move to jettison its unlimited mobile data plan and charge more for heavier use puts a roadblock in the plans of media providers trying to push Internet TV, according to a report released Tuesday by iSuppli.

Faced with more people grabbing more data, AT&T recently switched to a tiered pricing plan in hopes of limiting the strain on its 3G networks from devices like the iPhone and iPad. And Verizon is likely to follow suit.

But those caps pose the question of how providers will satisfy the growing demand for streaming media without the … Read more

Though Steve Jobs, after handing out free Bumpers to current iPhone 4 customers, assured users waiting for the white version of the iPhone 4 that the device is still on schedule to ship at the end of July, reports around the Web suggest Apple could see some major supply issues and availability could be limited.

Translated from Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, manufacturing issues for the white iPhone 4 are apparently related to problems with painting the glass surfaces of the device at the Lens Technology manufacturing plant (where iPhone 4 glass is processed, pressed, and painted).

According to Engadget, &… Read more

Samsung is rocketing up the ranks in the portable PC industry, according to the latest stats released Tuesday by iSuppli.

Thanks to hot demand for its Netbooks, the South Korean computer maker shipped 1.9 million mobile PCs (notebooks and Netbooks combined), a 14.6 percent jump from the 1.7 million shipped during the fourth quarter. Those numbers helped Samsung outperform the overall portable PC market, in which shipments declined by 5.4 percent from the prior quarter due to the usual seasonal downturn, noted iSuppli.

Grabbing a 3.9 percent share of the global portable PC business in … Read more

This shouldn't come as news to anyone: As iPhones age, their batteries wear out. It's just the unfortunate nature of rechargeable power cells.

Sadly, Apple makes it pretty difficult to swap in a new battery--not without some warranty-voiding surgery, anyway. But you can connect an external power supply, which is cheap, easy, and affordable.

In fact, it's more affordable today than I've ever seen: Meritline has an 1800mAh iPhone backup battery for $8.99 shipped. It's compatible with all iPhone models (the iPhone 4 isn't specifically mentioned, but it stands to reason the battery … Read more

Early demand for the iPhone 4 that exceeded supply could put Apple at risk and is prompting frustrated customers to consider competing smartphones, according to a new report from iSuppli.

Though Apple and its partners racked up 600,000 preorders for the iPhone 4 in one day and sold 1.7 million units in just three days, iSuppli believes the early heavy demand has come at some cost to the company.

The huge wave of preorders on June 15 caused the ordering systems of Apple and AT&T to stall, shutting out some customers and forcing the companies to … Read more

The parts used to construct the iPhone 4 cost about $187.51, according to a teardown analysis conducted by research firm iSuppli.

iSuppli dissected a 16GB iPhone 4, which went on sale Thursday, and estimated the cost of each component based on the manufacturer and volume. iSuppli's analysis is only an estimate because Apple is able to negotiate costs with each manufacturer. It also does not include how much Apple spent on shipping and labor to build the phone, or advertising, software development, and patent licensing.

"Over the years, the iPhone has generally tended to hover in the $… Read more

Boosted by growing consumer demand for advanced TVs, Samsung carved out a leading share of the U.S. LCD TV market in the first quarter, according to data released Monday by iSuppli.

For the quarter, the South Korean company shipped 1.1 million LCD TVs. Though that number was down 33 percent from the fourth quarter, Samsung still beat out the overall industry, which saw its shipments drop by 35.8 percent. This difference helped Samsung inch its market share up to 18 percent from 17.3 percent in the previous quarter.

The overall decline in LCD TV shipments is … Read more