US computer giant Dell Inc said it is expanding research staff at its Taiwan Development Center (TDC), which plays a critical role in designing for notebook and server products sold worldwide.
TDC is looking to recruit engineers and designers with eight to 10 years of experience to cope with the expanding business scope, said Dave Archer, managing director of Dell’s Taiwan branch.
TDC increased its headcount by about 20 percent from last year to the current 600 employees, he said.
The center is one of Dell’s five innovation centers in the world. The others are in Bangalore, Singapore, Shanghai and Texas.
TDC designs, plans and markets all of Dell’s consumer notebooks, such as the Inspiron and Studio series, all notebooks for small and medium-sized businesses, a significant portion of enterprise notebooks, most parts for its servers, and all of the company’s data center solutions, the company said in a statement.
TDC is also crucial to Dell’s foray into the China market, since it conducts focus group studies on notebooks to gauge users’ preferences before launching them in China.
The development center in Shanghai focuses primarily on desktop products.
In September, Dell announced plans to open a second major China operations center next year in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to provide manufacturing, sales and service to support sector growth in western China.
The new center is expected to be operational next year and could grow to 3,000 employees.
The company also reportedly plans to open an office at its Xiamen site and hire up to 500 people by the end of the year to support projected growth in north Asia and globally.
China’s English-language Global Times yesterday reported that Dell plans to ship Chinese-made computers directly to customers in Taiwan by the end of this month.
Taiwan’s Chinese-language Commercial Times had a similar report on Tuesday, citing Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice chairman of operations and technology.
Taiwan-bound products will come out of Dell’s flagship center in Xiamen, which includes two manufacturing plants that in the past supplied the Chinese market, as well as Japan and South Korea.
This will be the first time Dell will ship straight to Taiwan since it began its China operations in 1998, the reports said. Dell has previously shipped its Taiwan-bound products from its site in Penang, Malaysia.
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