Yesterday I wrote an article in which we explain that RIM would have had to postpone the release of the BlackBerry Playbook due to the fact that Apple bought a very large part of the stocks of touchscreen panels available on the market. An informative note from an analyst from Barrons informs us that at the moment Apple would capture around 60% of the total touch panels produced globally. The figure is enormous if we consider that Apple is not the only manufacturer of tablets or smartphones, so the company has concluded some extremely important partnerships in recent years.
Apple has already booked approximately 60% of the total available touch panel capacity. While some reports have stated that Apple will be facing component shortages for the iPad resulting from the Japanese earthquake, Hon Hai, Apple's primary manufacturing source has stated that it does not expect any component shortages, and alternate suppliers have been lined up.
For Apple, the situation is excellent, but for the rest of the manufacturers, problems may arise for the production of certain terminals, but probably few will be affected because no one sells as many touchscreen devices as Apple. Neither Samsung, nor Nokia, nor HTC sell as many smartphones or tablets with touchscreen screens, so this "monopoly" of Apple will not affect anyone.
