Officials from Quanta Computer Inc (
Although the company has not issued a formal statement on production figures for next year, spokeswoman Sherry Yang said the firm "should reach five million units," up from a projected 4.2 million notebooks this year.
Quanta manufactures notebook PCs for US-based Dell Computer Corp and Compaq Computer on an OEM basis.
Taiwan-based Compal Electronics Inc (
Compal President Ray Chen (
The acquisition of Compaq Computer by Hewlett-Packard will work to the benefit of Compal, Chen said.
Compaq orders notebooks mostly from Taiwan-based Inventec Electronics Corp (
Hewlett-Packard outsources the majority of its notebook production to Compal.
Some analysts believe H-P will begin to consolidate its purchasing from Compal.
One analyst who did not want to be named, was doubtful that Compal could overtake Quanta, citing Quanta's sizeable lead in the industry.
Taiwanese companies produced 52.5 percent of the world's notebook computers last year, more than any other country in the world, according to the government-funded Market Intelligence Center under the Institute for Information Industry
During the first half of this year, the number of notebooks produced in Taiwan dropped 4 percent from last year because of a drop in demand.
Revenues have fallen 16.9 percent as companies are slashing profit margins to stay competitive, the center said.
Quanta's production has continued to grow because of increased outsourcing from US-based Dell Computer.
"Fifty percent of Quanta's total sales are coming from Dell," said James Huang, a notebook-PC industry analyst at National Securities Corp (
Dell moved ahead of Compaq as the world's top seller of personal computers this year. The company is No. 3 in terms of notebook sales.
Analysts said the number of notebook-PC makers should fall from around 15 to about 10 within the next year.
"Smaller notebook-computer companies such as Clevo Co (藍天) and Twinhead International Corp (倫飛) simply cannot attain the economies of scale needed to remain profitable," one analyst said.
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