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Apple Might Start Making Its Own Batteries For iPhones, Macs (bloomberg.com)
Apple has hired an executive from the battery-making division of Samsung to help lead its own battery work. The new hire suggests that the company might start making its own batteries for iPhones and Macs. Bloomberg reports: Soonho Ahn joined Apple in December as global head of battery developments, after working as a senior vice president at Samsung SDI since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Samsung SDI, Ahn led development of lithium battery packs and worked on "next-generation" battery technology, the profile says. Apple has used batteries from Samsung SDI to power its own products in the past. The iPhone maker has been trying to reduce reliance on third-party components, and the notable battery technology hire suggests it may be doing the same for batteries. Apple has been working on its own MicroLED display technology for future devices, which would help wean itself off Samsung in other areas. It's also increasingly building its own processors and is investigating the development of its own cellular modems.
I wonder if Apple will develop its own battery format (iBattery ?!?). If they do, I guess that it will be patented and not freely available on the market as a single piece. And so we can say bye-bye to the "right to repair"....
Glue them in with stronger adhesive? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Also after hundred years of battery research, development & patents, Apple just comes and copies them? :-/
I might be starting to drink coffee from a black mug... instead of a white mug... Or I might not... You just never know... exciting isn't it?
Make everything 100% proprietary, so they can just stop making parts when a machine is marked as "EOL" and nobody will be able to get parts for them?
Mark my words, these "Apple" branded batteries will be cryptographically paired with the logic board somehow, and it'll require a custom Apple utility to replace the battery (assuming it's even replaceable anymore).
So how can he just jump ship from one company to another, and start doing the same thing there? What happened to non-compete agreements?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
are they sure they want someone from samsung to help them on the matter of batteries?
people are still joking about that samsung note 7 battery fiasco from two years ago...
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
... it's a shame now that fewer iPhones are being sold. But it's okay.
All the slashes removed. Some weird leading 'c' character. Editors?
Apple cannot seem to figure out what business it's in. Making their own CPUs makes sense given their history and that they're using an ARM base design. But let's see:
1. Making original TV/movie content.
2. Flirting with building cars.
3. Making components that Samsung does better.
4. Letting the Mac languish because i* is all that matters now.
One of these days, they're going to finally try to get into the game market and notice that Microsoft and Nintendo have them outflanked now. When I saw the Switch, I said "Apple's done, they waited too long because that's the gaming tablet people will want."
One of their updates broke the ability to charge from rechargeable external (USB) batteries.
So Foxcon are going to start making batteries now. Good for them! Apple doesn't actually make anything- they design things and hire out other companies to make them for them.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Apple should show more courage and remove the battery altogether.
From replacing the batteries in apple products.
Just another nail in the right to repair coffin.
The savings will be passed on to the customer. So cheaper iPhones. Right? Right!? Guys? Am I right?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Apple has always relied on differentiating its products with unique hardware.
You mean unique software. Apple is at its core a software company. This seems counter-intuitive until you think about it for a minute. The hardware in most Apple devices is at best superficially different from the competition and Apple doesn't even manufacture it. Oh they make a big stink about their design as a marketing ploy but it isn't what really makes their products distinct. You can (and I have) put Windows on a Macintosh and the experience is not meaningfully different than on a Dell or HP. Apple differentiates their products primarily through their software. If a Macintosh was sold with Windows they would be unable to command the profit margins they currently do because their hardware is nice but it's not that different or better than their best competition. This is not my opinion either. Steve Jobs understood this thoroughly. I think the current management seems a bit confused about this point.
Increasingly their competitors are getting ahead now, with things like foldable screens looking like they will be huge and Apple mostly reduced to just removing stuff like the headphone jack.
Folding screens as they currently stand are a fad that is not ready for prime time. It's a solution looking for a problem. Have you actually seen any of these products? If they are big hits I'll be truly astonished. The idea of a folding device is a good one but the form factors they are throwing out there currently are crap. And if you think Apple isn't taking a hard look at this stuff you are crazy.
By developing their own screens, batteries, modems and other hardware they can differentiate themselves like they do with CPUs now.
Certainly they could do this but they'll have to take it a LOT further. And unless they can actually create an improved component (cost and/or features) then there is no reason for them to do it in house. I think carefully curated vertical integration is actually probably a very good idea for Apple like you suggest. Tesla and SpaceX have done this too good effect. Plus one of the problems Apple has is that they do such huge volumes that supply becomes a problem. It's easy to do a folding screen when you only sell a few tens of thousands of devices. Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones which means that simply getting enough of any given component is a huge problem. Vertical integration can be a very good way to handle this issue and I think Apple has outsourced perhaps a bit too much of their hardware manufacturing.
It's BAD ENOUGH you STALK me by UNIDENTIFIABLE anon posts OR even IMPERSONATE me telling lies
Like you're the real apk?
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Soon they will be applying for patents on battery tech and fuck us all over, again.
I'm sure lithium batteries will be considered innovations by the US patents office.
See subject: & dorks trying MORE bs FAILED vs. me again today as I caught it as usual & my response to it's here https://slashdot.org/comments....
* HILARIOUS & CLASSIC - You KNOW you're EFFECTIVE when your tech points CANNOT BE TAKEN OUT VALIDLY WITH FACTS (as mine in that link are, as always) & you get ATTACKED constantly (only to have your attackers FAIL & HIDE behind UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous posts STALKING YOU - the province of WORMS in life).
APK
P.S.=> Unbelievable - but seeing IS believing... apk
The fact that you two are confused about the kind of company Apple is means they're quite successful at it. Apple are a marketing company
I'm sure that bit of nonsense sounded better in your head. You have classic conspiracy theory thinking. For whatever reason you don't like the company. You want to believe that Apple is some master manipulator because you can't quite wrap your head around the idea that they are simply providing good products that people actually want to buy. You don't have to like Apple or their products but spare us your notions that they are some sort of devious marketing company because you sound stupid saying it.
they license or buy other companies hardware and leach of the open source community for software.
"Leach the open source community"? The VAST majority of Apple's software is not open source and never will be and they've never pretended otherwise. The do utilize some open source software when it is reasonable to do so and under the terms requested by those who wrote that open source software. They even contribute back to some projects and have some of their own. If they are following the license terms of the software then it's not clear to me what your problem is. If the writers of the software had a problem with it they could have offered a different license.
As for buying and licensing other companies hardware, please find me a large tech company that doesn't do that and a lot of it. And there is nothing wrong with licensing or buying other company's technology. Not sure why you think this is a problem.
Then convince you that it's "unique" and "special" with advertisements.
You seem to be suffering from the delusion that marketing give companies some kind of superpower of influence. In actual fact Apple spends less as a percent of revenue on marketing than most of their peer tech companies including Microsoft, Intel, Google and even Oracle. If they were a "marketing company" as you claim then they would be spending far more on marketing than they actually are. In actual fact they make good products that people demonstrably want and they have one of the strongest brands out there as a result.
Nikon does not fab their own sensors. They source them from Sony and some other companies. What they do have is a sensor design team or department that acts as though they have a fabrication facility. This lets them take the product offering from Sony and then spec it to their particular needs. Apple may not need to make batteries ultimately but they certainly go through a lot of them and developing in-house expertise on this component cannot hurt them.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Apple cannot seem to figure out what business it's in.
Apple is pretty clear about what business they currently are in. A little too clear maybe. The problem they have is that they can't seem to figure out what business to go into next. Apple has the problem that any business they go into has to be enormous to really move the needle for them. The Apple Watch currently generates more revenue than the Ipod ever did (remember those?) and yet people think it is a failure for Apple because the market opportunity just isn't big enough. For Apple to grow just 10% in a year they have to create a new business the size of eBay from scratch. And then they have to do it again plus some the next year. That limits the markets they can seriously consider.
Making their own CPUs makes sense given their history and that they're using an ARM base design. But let's see:
Let's be clear. They don't make the CPUs. They design them and then another company (currently TSMC for the A12) makes them.
One of these days, they're going to finally try to get into the game market and notice that Microsoft and Nintendo have them outflanked now.
Seems unlikely Apple will do this. They've flirted with the idea but it's probably not a good fit for them. I think they'll just stick with doing games on the machines they already make.
When I saw the Switch, I said "Apple's done, they waited too long because that's the gaming tablet people will want."
Unlikely. There is scant evidence the the Switch is meaningfully disrupting iPad sales and the Switch currently is close to useless for anything but games. Those facts might change in the future but I think you are hugely overestimating the market overlap of the two.
Nikon does not fab their own sensors. They source them from Sony and some other companies.
This is true and ultimately it may be their doom. Sony has gotten into the high end camera market to the point where they lead the market in new camera sales passing both Nikon and Canon. Having to rely on one of your biggest competitors for such a critical component is a BAD place to be. Especially since the market for dedicated camera fell off a cliff courtesy of smartphones.
I kind of agree with you on #1, Apple media content is a strange fit.
#2 makes sense as a moon shot, that they wisen dropped - but it gave them a lot of benefits in understanding modern machine learning, so like all moonshots it had good side products.
#4 you are just flat our wrong on, Apple in the last year has done a lot of stuff - hardwire and software - for the Mac world.
Now this one:
Making components that Samsung does better.
How do you know Samsung "does this better"? It seems like at this point Apple could easily do at least as good a job AS Samsung, batteries being a pretty well understood item - furthermore Apple spending a lot of money has a chance they can come up with some unique take that is actually better.
Furthermore, Samsung is more a direct competitor to Apple than most companies. Why on earth would you NOT want to avoid giving money to your direct competitor, where at all possible?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Most companies that want to be become big try to keep their money in house i.e. GM, some food manufacturers etc.
They eliminate the middle man and can control their costs more and it seems this is the only way Apple can increase their profit margin.
Since the smartphone is such a commodity product now, I don't think consumers care whats under the hood as to how it is done but
only if there is some new fangled gadget/feature they are given that would make them buy that product.
In the end for Apple to keep ahead of the game, it will be expensive to get there and stay there since I think this is only a path for them
in the short term and not long term. There will be to many other players that can compete and do the same thing as them at a lower
cost in the end. Only those that want to buy into the brand name will keep paying the exorbitant cost that Apple wants. Thus the new
upcoming company will then be the new Apple to beat.
WHO's the real slime shady apk
The real slimy shady apk
Is it (butt) creimer?
Apk : allied porn kartel?
Creimer : cute rash external intimate male exclusive rogue ?
- elvis
Trying VAINLY to "FRAME" me? Please - give up already, loser. It's BAD ENOUGH you STALK me by UNIDENTIFIABLE anon posts OR even IMPERSONATE me telling lies https://news.slashdot.org/comm... which I shut down right after that here https://news.slashdot.org/comm...
* Take your OWN advice you chickenshit punk!
APK
P.S.=> Disgusting WORM that you are... apk
See subject: Only problem's I knocked the impostor out & he sees "tweety birds" on the ground after https://hardware.slashdot.org/... & so, I'm the ONLY 1 LEFT STANDING, & standing BEHIND MY WORDS (unlike that f'ing WEEZIL).
* As always vs. UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous "weezilz" who STALK me &/or IMPERSONATE me...
APK
P.S.=> Like I said before earlier today - When MORONS can't face you &/OR defeat your tech points VALIDLY + STALK you (especially by UNIDENTIFIABLE anon posts)? You ARE effective & F'ing up THEIR bullshit 'agendas', somehow (fact/truth - nothing LIKE it)... apk
Sounds like an exploding development. In all seriousness, why can't they promote from within? This is like the musical chair CEO thing, and that always ends so well.
It's so obvious why Apple would do this. While there could be a certain amount of pride in running a company that goes from raw materials to a finished product it usually isn't in the best economic interest. There is one glaringly obvious reason for this: To make repair even more difficult. Why have a walled garden when you can have multiple walls?
I can't understand the popularity of iPhones. Whenever family asks for help with theirs I feel like I'm back in the stoneage using it compared to my Pixel 3. Heck, I feel like iOS is a bit less useful than my old Blackberry or Windows Phone. I hear it plays music well (I don't listen to any music).
Control all aspects of production and distribution.