The OEM/ODM crowd... differs from EDIG
There are numerous companies in numerous areas of business that while they sub out or out source the manufacturing the actual products, are considered to be manufacturers. Also many companies USED to do their own manufacturing, but they no longer.....They are still considered manufacturers.
Not comparing e.Digital (yet LOL) to these other companies, but give credit where it is due, just as you give blame.
Asustek to make iPod mini for Apple
Latest news
Emma Wang, Taipei; Steve Shen, DigiTimes.com [Friday 3 September 2004]
Asustek Computer has received OEM orders for the iPod mini digital music player from Apple Computer, according to market sources. Asustek is the second Taiwan-based manufacturer of the digital devices since Inventec Appliances also produces the iPod for Apple.
Asustek will assemble and ship the iPod to Apple from its plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province (China), the sources said.
The iPod orders will help Asustek in working toward its goal of becoming a key provider of consumer electronics products, the sources noted.
In related news, Inventec is expected to continue to supply Apple with its current iPod models. In addition, Inventec is also likely to secure orders for a similar version of the iPod from Hewlett-Packard (HP), the sources said. Apple and HP entered into an agreement earlier this year for HP to resell the iPod under the HP brand.
Made by Who, what?
What is in a name? Would a rose smell just as sweet if it were called by a different name? The famous Bard answered these questions very eloquently hundreds of years ago. Today in the laptop industry, these questions are asked once again. The answer hasn’t changed.
In June of 2003 major Taiwan notebook makers reported record sales growth in the industry. The world’s largest Notebook Computer manufacturer, Quanta Computer, shipped more than 800,000 notebooks in June thanks in part to major brands like Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, NEC and Acer. Quanta sold over 5 million notebooks to Dell over an 18 month period beginning in June 2002. The IBM Thinkpad G series and certain Sony VAIO models are also produced by Quanta Computer.
Companies like Quanta Computer are known as Original Design manufacturer (ODMs). The ODMs are contracted by Original Equipment manufacturer’s (OEMs), companies whose names you would be familiar with, to produce notebooks for them. Then the OEM’s take delivery of these models and install the hard drive, processor, memory and affix their label on them and go to market. IBM, Toshiba and Fujitsu have been well established as the top hard drive manufacturers, that is why most of the world’s notebooks carry one of their hard drives.
Most brand name notebooks out in the market today are not manufactured by the companies that market them. There are exceptions like Asus, Toshiba and IBM but even the latter two don’t manufacture all of their laptops. Here are some examples of ODMs that actually manufacture the notebooks you are familiar with. Winstron ships over 3 million notebooks per year, including the Acer TravelMate, IBM ThinkPad X series notebook, the new Centrino based Dell Latitude D400 and the NEC Versa P440.
Clevo, one of the most successful and rapidly growing ODMs, designs and manufacturers the ProStar/Sager NP5670 series. The much hyped AlienWare Area 51M which had accolades showered upon it by industry critics is the same notebook. The ProStar/Sager NP 8882 series is the same notebook as the pricy Voodoo M600. Of course the ProStar/Sager notebooks are priced much better since they spend less on marketing the same notebook.
Inventec makes notebooks for Toshiba, although Toshiba also manufacuteres some of its own notebooks in Japan. Inventec is responsible for the popular Satellite models. Inventc and Arima, which is struggling, produced the Compaq Presario and Armada models respectively.
Compal, the worlds second largest laptop makers, was just contracted to produce the new line of HP consumer notebooks. Compal is projecting sales of over 5 million notebooks this year with 350,000 notebooks going to Acer. The new mobile Pentium 4 Toshiba, Dell Inspiron 8500 notebooks are produced by Compal. Even the new Apple 15.4” wide screen notebooks and 17” PowerBooks are made by Compal. Apple also orders its 12-inch Powerbook from ECS.
HP led worldwide notebook market the first half of this year and are the undisputed King of the Hill in the notebook market, not because their Notebooks are much better than anyone else’s but because HP is a monster markeing jugeranaut. Remember HP buys most of its Notebooks from Quanta Computer.
Although, the configurations vary between these “brand names” the quality of most notebooks is consistently similar. You will find the same notebook in a broad price range depending on which company is marketing it. Don’t be fooled by brand name marketing gimmicks that promise better quality for a premium price. Look at the Sony recall recently of two of its more popular models.
Among the world’s top Notebook manufacturers are Winstron, Compal Electronics, Inventec, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), First International Computer (FIC), Asustek Computer, Arima Computer, Mitac Technology, Clevo, and Twinhead. Together these companies account for over 90% of worldwide notebook sales. These companies aren’t exactly brand names you may be familiar with but chances are that if you own a notebook it was manufactured by one of them irregardless of the “name brand” that it was marketed under.
Quanta Computer Posts Drop in 2Q Earnings
08.30.2004, 06:48 AM
Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc. - the world's largest laptop maker - said Monday that its second-quarter net profit dropped by 7 percent from a year earlier because of rising component costs.
Quanta said net profit totaled 2.96 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$86.8 million, euro 72.2 million) in the three months that ended June 30, compared with NT$3.19 billion (US$93.8 million, euro 77.8 million) a year earlier.
The company makes notebook PCs and mobile phones on a contract basis for global clients like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Quanta said in a statement that rising component costs hurt the company during the first six months of 2004. The price of liquid-crystal-display screens, one of the most expensive parts of a laptop computer, have especially been surging.
Eve Jung, an analyst at UBS Securities in Taipei, said there also seemed to be a slowing demand for computers because of seasonal factors. The April-June period is normally the slowest for the personal computer industry.
The Taiwanese company said second-quarter revenue totaled NT$69.37 billion (US$2 billion, euro 1.6 billion), up 6 percent from NT$65.34 billion (US$1.9 billion, euro 1.5 billion) a year earlier.
Quanta said that although growth in the laptop PC industry had so far been a "disappointment," it still expected global laptop PC shipments to rise 20 percent to 25 percent in 2004.
Looking ahead to the third quarter, Quanta said it will likely post a 20 percent to 30 percent on-quarter rise in notebook PC shipments.
The company's second-quarter notebook PC shipments rose 10 percent on year and 7 percent on quarter. Its shipments of mobile phone handsets totaled nearly 1.1 million, up 5 percent on year but down 7 percent from the first quarter.
But Jung predicted that stiff competition in the computer industry will continue to erode Quanta's profitability.
"I expect further downside for Quanta's gross margin in the third quarter, even though the firm predicted growth across all product segments," Jung said.
Need I go on?????
