Supplies of metal chassis for Ultrabook PC notebooks remains constrained as Apple has locked up most of the available capacity from vendors.
Taiwanese tech industry publication DigiTimes reported on Tuesday that metal chassis supply “continues to suffer from shortage.” The reason: Apple is buying most of the supply available for its unibody MacBook lineup, including the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
Catcher Technology and Foxconn, the two largest metal chassis manufacturers, have been reported to be “aggressively establishing new CNC machines.” But it is unlikely they will be able to meet full demand until the end of 2012.
The report also said the PC makers have begun building “ultra-like” notebooks, instead of laptops that meet Intel’s “Ultrabook” specs, as Ultrabooks have been suffering from weak sales. The switch has caused shortages of slim panels, in addition to the metal chassis shortage.
Traditional display panels are about 5.2 to 5.5 millimeters thick, while slim panels measure about 3.6 millimeters, panels for Ultrabooks measure 2.85 to 3 millimeters.
This isn’t the first report of Apple having a firm grasp on metal notebook chassis. a report last August claimed companies were forced to use alternatives because Apple controlled most of the capacity of magnesium-aluminum chassis.
