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.
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