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 companys logo, the manufacturing, assembly—and increasingly, the design —are carried out by a smaller number Taiwan and Chinese ODMs.
While HPs 2006 notebook market share of somewhat less than 20 percent was the highest among 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.
