The Top Laptop Makers Are Not HP, Dell, or Toshiba

On Wednesday, an analyst group released the market share held by laptop manufacturers during 2006 – not OEMs like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Toshiba, but the companies that actually make the laptops themselves.

Although a Dell or Hewlett-Packard computer bears the company's logo, the manufacturing, assembly – and increasingly, the design – are carried out by a smaller number Taiwan and Chinese ODMs.

While HP's 2006 notebook market share of somewhat less than 20 percent was the highest amongst its competitors, the top ODM, Quanta, actually outsold HP by manufacturing roughly 33 percent of all notebooks that were eventually sold, according to a report by Research and Markets.

In the ODM world, the top five manufacturers of 2006 were Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Inventec and Asus, whose total shipments accounted for 86.6 percent of the total market.

In 2005, total laptop shipments increased 18.4 percent over 2004 to 58.2 million units. During 2006, sales grew 24.6 percent to 72.6 million units, evidence that notebooks are quickly outpacing PCs, and what the firm attributed to strong dual-core notebook sales in Europe. A further surge in notebook shipments is expected in the second half of 2007, when Vista sales will kick in. For 2007, total sales are expected to be about 89.03 million units, a 22.6 percent growth rate.

In 2006, Quanta sold 24 million units, compared to 15 million units sold by Compal, a 21 percent market share. Unit sales by wistron, Inventec, and Asus totaled 11 million units, 7 million units, and 5 million units, respectively, placing their market shares at 15 percent, 10 percent, and 7 percent, respectively. Companies like MiTAC, FIC, Arima, Uniwill, ECS and Clevo will have to struggle to compete, Research and Markets said.

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