Notebook PCs & Accessories

China is rapidly becoming the world's production center for notebook PCs and accessories — with at least 50% of world output produced in the country in 2004.

To help you source more efficiently in such a booming supply market, this 212-page report profiles 131 major suppliers in mainland China and Taiwan.

Use its inside information on prices, product developments and more to shortlist new manufacturers that best meet your needs or to benchmark current suppliers.

You'll also get an overview of the notebook PC industry in the region, including forecasts of trends that will impact your sourcing throughout 2005.

What you'll get

A detailed product comparison table with color pictures and specifications, that lets you benchmark 378 popular notebook PCs, headsets, wired/wireless mice, external CD/DVD drives, WLAN cards and other accessories

Background information to pre-qualify manufacturers that serve big buyers such as Compal, Dell, HP, Quanta and Sony

Deep profiles of 43 leading producers in mainland China and Taiwan, highlighting their production facilities, export capacities, joint-venture partners, quality-control procedures and R&D facilities. This information is available nowhere else.

Concise profile tables of an additional 88 suppliers, with key sourcing data such as production capabilities, product lines, export markets, and quality approvals and certifications

How you'll benefit

Identify which makers are focusing on producing notebooks with 802.11g WLAN and PCI Express interface features

Track the continuing shift of manufacturing by Taiwan suppliers to mainland China and find out how this will impact the supply market during the next 12 months

Discover which producers are capable of handling large-volume export orders and which are more suited to niche orders

Get quick-to-use summary listings covering all featured suppliers, with easily comparable statistics plus verified contact details and website addresses

Executive summary

Demand for notebook PCs continues to grow at a faster rate than that for desktop PCs. Notebooks are projected to account for 25 percent of global PC shipments in 2004, with the proportion expected to reach 33 percent in 2006.
Of the 42 million to 47 million notebook PCs that will be shipped worldwide in 2004, at least 50 percent will be produced in mainland China, mostly by Taiwan-invested manufacturers.

There are over 30 suppliers of notebook PCs in mainland China and Taiwan. Supply is dominated by Taiwan suppliers who concentrate on contract manufacturing for the world's top brands such as Dell, HP and Toshiba. Others leverage on the consumer awareness of their brands, but have no in-house production capability.

Relocation of production to mainland China has enabled Taiwan makers to slash FOB prices due to lower labor costs and savings on components, such as batteries and AC adapters.

Most companies are clustered in Suzhou and Wujiang, Jiangsu province; Shenzhen and Zhongshan, Guangdong province; and in Shanghai. Some production lines retained in Taiwan handle high-end models or pilot runs of new releases. R&D centers and marketing offices are also on the island.

Moving to mainland China has also given Taiwan makers a foothold on the fast-growing domestic China market for notebook PCs.

On the other hand, mainland China-based suppliers, who mostly have manufacturing backgrounds in desktop PCs and consumer electronics, sell in the domestic market only. The majority of them have Taiwan partners who manufacture notebook PCs for them. Many mainland suppliers find the US$2 million investment required for starting a notebook PC assembly line too steep.

A growing number of suppliers, however, are obtaining the technological know-how for producing notebook PCs. Some makers have already established R&D centers to develop the requisite expertise. Makers that have in-house production capability are currently domestic-oriented. These companies are looking to break into overseas markets in 2004 and 2005.

More than half of available models feature Intel mobile CPUs. Centrino is the most widely adopted notebook PC solution by makers. It is preferred because of the integrated 802.11b WLAN support and low power consumption. Dothan-core Pentium M models power high-end models.

Aside from WLAN, other features expected to become more common in 2004 and mainstream by 2005 are 16:9 wide screens, and built-in PC cameras and card readers. More features will also be introduced to promote notebook PCs as multimedia entertainment appliances

Industry overview

Out of the estimated 42 million to 47 million notebook PCs that will be shipped globally in 2004, at least 23.5 million units, or 50 percent to 56 percent, will be manufactured in mainland China.

China customs reported that notebook PC exports rose to US$15.7 billion in the 12-month period of July 2003 to June 2004, representing almost 177 percent year-on-year growth. Month-on-month change in the value of exports averaged 247 percent over the same period.

North America and Western Europe receive about 70 percent of notebook PC shipments from mainland China. The United States is the primary destination, gobbling up 35.5 percent of mainland exports. France and Germany are the major destinations in Europe.

Asian markets absorb about 24 percent of exports, with Japan at the top of the list.

A huge percentage of notebook PCs shipped out of mainland China are actually made by Taiwan-based companies.

According to Taiwan's Market Intelligence Center (MIC), the island's notebook PC suppliers will account for about 67 percent, or 33.5 million units, of total global production in 2004. These suppliers are the contract manufacturers of the world's leading notebook PC brands such as Sony, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Fujitsu-Siemens and Dell, and large retail chains such as Wal-Mart.

Three categories of notebook PC suppliers in Taiwan
Notebook PC suppliers in Taiwan are either pure contract manufacturers, contract manufacturers with their own brands, or big-brand, non-manufacturing companies.

The pure contract manufacturers include some of Taiwan's largest privately owned companies, such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron, Inventec, Arima Computer, First International Computer (FIC), Mitac and Uniwill Computer. These companies focus on OEM and ODM services instead of marketing their own brands.

Contract manufacturers that also market their own brands include Clevo Computer, Twinhead International and motherboard makers Asustek Computer and Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), which are new entrants in the line.

Makers that supply notebook PCs bearing their own brands but without manufacturing capability include Acer Group and BenQ. These vendors rely mainly on pure contract manufacturers. For instance, Wistron is a spinoff of Acer and is one of the latter's major notebook PC contract manufacturers.

Taiwan's notebook PC makers rely heavily on orders from the world's top 10 vendors. Orders from other companies are relatively small. The two top pure contract manufacturers, Quanta and Compal, account for nearly two-thirds of production, with the remainder divided among half a dozen other large makers. Quanta has initially targeted to ship 14 million notebook PCs in 2004, while Compal projected 8 million units. Quanta has since lowered its target to 11 million units in Q3 2004, after shipping only 4.5 million units in H1 2004.

Samples of supplier profile

Acer Group
Acer is one of Taiwan's leading brands in the IT industry. Established in 1975, the company owns a number of subsidiaries, affiliates and joint ventures. The Pan Acer Group, better known as the Acer Group and the BenQ Group, has more than 60,000 employees worldwide. Its consolidated sales reached US$15.6 billion in 2003.

Apart from spinning off Wistron and BenQ, the Acer Group has been concentrating on sales and marketing for its IT products including notebook PCs, desktop PCs and displays. The Wistron Group, which includes AOpen, focuses at providing EMS services for companies such as Acer.

Acer sold 2.5 million notebook PCs in 2003, and projects to sell another 3.5 million units in 2004. The company expects to grow 40 percent to 50 percent annually. It also targets to sell 5 million notebook PCs in 2005 to challenge world leaders Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell.

Acer expects sales in the Greater China region to hit US$764 million in 2004, selling some 100,000 notebook PCs, and 250,000 to 300,000 desktop PCs. The firm has over 50 dealers throughout the region.

In 2003, Acer recorded US$3.5 billion in sales, of which notebook PCs accounted for 58 percent.

Most of Acer's products are exported to overseas markets. Europe, the Middle East and Africa make up 63 percent of total sales, while Asia Pacific accounts for 16 percent; mainland China, 14 percent; and North America, 7 percent.

The company was rated second-most popular brand for notebook PCs in Western Europe in 2003 and is the largest notebook PC vendor in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic in Q4 2003. Acer surpassed rival HP in notebook PC sales in Europe in Q2 2004.

Acer subcontracts the production of its notebook PCs to Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Wistron, companies that handle EMS manufacturing for world-renowned brands including HP, Apple and Dell.

Wistron is Acer's top OEM for notebook PCs. However, Quanta is expected to replace Wistron as the largest contract notebook maker for Acer in 2004. Quanta is forecast to manufacture over 1.5 million notebook PCs for Acer in 2004, accounting for 37 percent to 43 percent of Acer's annual target of between 3.5 million and 4 million units.

In general, Acer's commercial notebook PC models like the TravelMate 3200 are produced by Quanta, while its consumer models for home use such as the Aspire 1800 are manufactured by Compal.

Many of Acer's notebook PCs are still produced in the Taiwan manufacturing plants of its three subcontractors.

Sample of product gallery

Notebook PCs Company: Acer Model: Ferrari 3200 CPU Speed and Type: Athlon 64 2800+ Optical Drive: Multi rewritable DVD

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