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.

Comments

Re:Proprietary battery ?

[AmiMoJo]

Apple has always relied on differentiating its products with unique hardware. 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.

By developing their own screens, batteries, modems and other hardware they can differentiate themselves like they do with CPUs now. They have top notch single core performance that lets them look good in benchmarks, and no-one else can simply buy the same CPU.