Lithium Polymer Batteries to Become Hot Replacement for Li-ion Power Supplies

Taipei, April 10, 2008 (CENS)--With a lingering shortage of cells, raw material for li-ion power supplies for notebook PCs, the world's leading notebook PC brands, including Dell and HP, have moved to adopt lithium polymer batteries as replacement for li-ion power supplies, according to industry sources.

The move is expected to ease shortages of cells for li-ion power supplies, as well as to benefit Taiwan's notebook PC makers, including Quanta Computer Inc., Compal Electronics Inc., Wistron Corp. and Inventec Corp., and battery supply makers, such as Simplo Technology Co. and Celxpert Energy Corp.

Raymond Sung, chairman of Simplo, noted that leading notebook PC brands have moved to use other raw materials for battery supplies in their products and have been scheduled to launch them at the end of the second quarter of this year. On the other hand, Compal's president Ray Chen also indicated that the cell shortage is expected to be eased in the third quarter of the year.

Sung said that to fend off server cell shortages, some notebook PC brands have already sent new samples of lithium polymer-made battery supplies to Simplo in April and his company will start mass production of the battery supplies in June.

In fact, only Apple Inc. has adopted lithium polymer battery supplies in its notebook PCs so far. This kind of power supplies is thin and flat in shape, and is lighter than general 18650 li-ion battery supplies; however, it costs 40-50% more than the latter. This makes other notebook PC brands prefer to 18650 li-ion models rather than lithium polymer models. But, as several unexpected accidents, such fires in production plants of cell makers LGC and Matsushita, led to tight supply of cells for 18650 li-ion battery supplies, they have become active developing replacements for such a cell.