After Taiwan made headlines last year for surpassing Japan by a very small margin as the number one notebook computer maker in the world, Japanese manufacturers were quick to note that a large number of Taiwan-made notebooks were only partially made here -- and finished in Japan.
Not any more.
Taiwan's notebook makers will take a commanding lead over Japan this year, accounting for between 55 percent and 58 percent of the worldwide notebook computer market, Merrill Lynch industry analyst Tony Tseng said yesterday. And the Japanese have helped tip the scales by increasing purchases from Taiwan.
According to Tseng, the value of notebook production in Taiwan will be roughly US$10 billion this year, with at least 60 percent of that going to the US and 25 percent to 30 percent going to Japan.
"Of the top 10 personal computer vendors in the world, five are from the US [Apple, Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM], four from Japan [Fujitsu, NEC, Sony, Toshiba] and one in Taiwan, Acer," Tseng said.
American PC companies first adopted the outsourcing strategy; IBM, Compaq, HP and Dell all outsource notebook production to Taiwan, Tseng said.
But Japanese companies have gotten into the swing of things and, although reluctant at first, have started outsourcing notebook manufacturing to Taiwan in droves.
According to Tseng, the first companies to fall in step were NEC and Fujitsu, but Japan's two biggest PC makers -- Sony and Toshiba -- are in the game now.
"Toshiba started working with Compal last September, starting with test orders ... only about 10,000 units," Tseng said.
Apparently, Toshiba liked what it saw, because the mammoth Japanese notebook computer firm reportedly plans to order one million notebooks from Compal (仁寶) this year.
That order alone has pushed Compal into the local notebook industry's No. 2 spot behind Quanta Computer (廣達電腦) and ahead of Acer (宏電) for the first time.
According to Henry Wang (
He pointed out that Inventec (
Quanta, Taiwan's largest notebook manufacturer, has secured orders from one of the most coveted Japanese companies now outsourcing, Sony. The company reportedly placed an order for 300,000 notebooks with Quanta.
But Wang also said that according to company sales forecasts, Quanta should end the year on top, followed by Acer, Compal in third, Inventec in fourth and Arima Computer Corp (
Wang and Merrill Lynch's Tseng both see Japanese companies increasing purchases in Taiwan's notebook and other information technology industries as a long term trend.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last