-=PCTechTalk=- Re: none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops

It's the dirty little secret of all industry. And now that you know 
this, what?  This is a common practice throughout the computer industry 
and many other industries.  Did you know that part of your Ford was made 
in Singapore and that some Ford and Mazda models are made on the same 
assembly line?  Did you know that many appliances with different names 
are made in the same factories?  Did you know that there are only a few 
tire makers in the world and that they make all the different brands?

But what is not mentioned here is that all companies, like Quanta, make 
laptops to specific designs.  So Quanta may do the actual manufacturing 
of the Dell Latitude and the Sony Vaio but Dell designed the Latitude 
and Sony designed the Vaio.  It's not like Quanta just comes up with a 
vanilla laptop and then pastes a Dell or Sony logo on it.

And this makes all laptops more affordable.  Dell and Sony don't have to 
maintain separate manufacturing plants, all they have to do is have a 
design department.  And since a company like Quanta has all the 
manufacturing capability in one place and is very familiar with design 
changes (actually, is structured to facilitate design changes), they can 
retool and begin production (as well as suggest design changes that will 
ease or speed up production) much more quickly than a single company 
like Dell or Sony.

And I would imagine that Quanta still gets its Intel processors from 
Intel, its memory from someone like Kingston or Micron, has the 
motherboards made by one of the larger manufacturing facilities in 
Taiwan or China (who probably make the motherboards for Compal, GVC and 
Mitac as well), the CD drives from Toshiba and the batteries from 
Ray-O-Vac (or whoever).

The point is that this is a global economy with truly global 
manufacturing. Specialization allows for goods to be brought to market 
easier and cheaper.  I would be more concerned with who sells and backs 
the laptop than where it was actually assembled.

Tom

Bashful Bob wrote:
> I didn't know this did you?
> **********************************
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.powernotebooks.com/Name_Brand.php3
> 
> 
> 
> Let's talk about the concept of 'Name Brand' as it applies to laptop 
> computers.
> 
>  
> 
> Virtually none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops, with the 
> only exceptions being Asus, Twinhead and Apple, and even Twinhead and Apple 
> do not make all of their own. 
> 
> All of the rest buy their laptops from what is called an Original Design 
> Manufacturer (ODM). These ODMs sell their computers to several different OEMs 
> who then install the Hard Drive (usually an Hitachi or Toshiba), Processor 
> and System Memory. They then put their label on it and market it. 
> 
> For example: 
> 
> An ODM named Clevo makes the Sager NP5690and the original Alienware Area 
> 51-M, the Voodoo MClass M550, the Hypersonic Aviator GX6, and they are all 
> the same computer. Clevo also makes the Sager NP8790, the Falcon Northwest 
> Fragbook DL, and the Voodoo Envy M:780, and they are also the same computer.
> 
> Of course the Sager models have a much sweeter price tag! 
> 
> An ODM named Compal makes some of the DELL, Hewlett Packard and Compaq line 
> of laptops, as well as the PowerPro M 5:6, PowerPro M 5:14, and the PowerPro 
> M 6:33. 
> 
> Asus, famous worldwide for their top quality motherboards and other 
> components, also makes their own laptops, and the PowerPro C 3:17 and the 
> PowerPro C 3:12. 
> 
> The Dell Latitude and the Sony Vaio are made by Quanta, who also makes many 
> of the IBM laptops, and the now-discontinued PowerPro C 3:16. Quanta is well 
> known as the best and highest quality laptop ODM in the world. 
> 
> The Micron Transport Treck and Treck 2 are made by GVC. Compaq is actually 
> manufactured by companies called Inventec (Armada and Prosignia lines) and 
> Arima (Presario line). 
> 
> Other ODM names are Mitac, FIC, and Uniwill, among others. Not exactly what 
> you would call "Name" brands, and yet it is their laptops that end up with 
> the "Name" brands on them. 
> 
> Sager and Pro-Star Computers are made by Clevo. Clevo is one of the largest, 
> and best, in the world. 
> 
> Well, you get the idea. 
> 
> Some call this the "Dirty little secret of the Laptop Industry". 
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