Deal may accommodate touch Apple rivals

Apple may be on the verge of making a touch panel supply much more limited than it is already on the market a mobile device in the face of the crisis in Japan. New DigiTimes report Wednesday ( AppleInsiderthrough) says Apple in talks with producers of touchpad Taiwanese, and Mac is ready to pay more of the manufacturer, to secure "sufficient supplies" for their products.

The capacity of the touchpad is reportedly limited in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan almost two weeks ago. Foxconn, the company makes many touchscreen Apple products in China, are said to have two to three weeks worth of stockpiled, but may face a shortage of after that if you do not improve the situation in Japan, which could lead to the production of freezing. This is something Apple wants to avoid at all charge, taking into account the continuing success of its iPad 2 and upcoming international launch this device this Friday.

If the report is true, Apple may be paying quite a lot more touch panels, which hit the gross margins. But as what is likely to be in at least two ways. Firstly, Apple could still meet (or at least comes close to meeting) at the request of the client. Lines are good for Apple, as long as people standing in those lines actually have a reasonable chance of getting their hands on the device. Total disappointment, not stockouts would demand.

The second way Apple could benefit from purchasing even a larger percentage of the restricted stock is by reducing the availability of the same parts for its closest competitors. iPad competition is heating up with producers such as RIM enter dates and prices on their own tablet PC offers. If some additional expenditure on the part of Apple, you can generally raise the prices of the products of a competitor, and might even affect the ability of competitors to enter the products on the market in a timely manner, will help only the market position of the iPad.

Apple is known for its safety components, so it would not be surprising to see a company make this philosophy a step in order to protect at the time of instability in the supply chain. Watch for signs of whether this strategy pay in the coming weeks the iPad 2 rolls more countries and competitors trying to placing on the market.