Boston-Power to Set Up R&D Center in Taiwan

In light of Taiwan`s dominance in the global market for notebook PCs, US-based Boston-Power Inc, a globally well-known supplier of lithium rechargeable batteries, is going to set up an R&D center on the island. The company plans to ally with local notebook PC manufacturers to compete against Japanese and Korean battery makers, according industry sources.

Strong popularity of notebook PCs and related 3C (consumer electronics, computers and communications) products has fueled the development of rechargeable batteries for mobile devices in recent years. So far, scale of the global market for such batteries has hit billions of US dollars a year.

Especially, consumer demand for high performance, secure and eco-friendly rechargeable lithium batteries for notebook PCs are the strongest, inspiring Boston-Power to venture into the lucrative market. Featuring a three year warranty, strong durability and short recharge time, Boston-Power`s notebook PC battery has been adopted by HP, the world`s largest notebook PC supplier, and piqued intense interest from Dell and Acer.

Noteworthy is that Boston-Power`s cutting-edge battery with an extra long lifespan will likely prompt Taiwanese notebook PC suppliers to redesign their products with built-in batteries. At present, most notebook PCs are powered by embedded batteries. Hence, Boston-Power`s decision to set up an R&D center on the island will benefit local notebook PC makers in developing such new models. Accordingly, the firm has actively moved to contact Quanta Computer Inc, Compal Electronics and Inventec Corp for cooperation.

From another viewpoint, Boston-Power`s move to directly tap supply chains of notebook PCs will very likely break the status quo in the segment for batteries, where Japanese and Korean makers, including Panasonic, Samsung and LG, have been dominant for a long time, industry insiders indicated.

Source: CENS