By Paul Kunert
11 July 2008
Taiwanese original design manufacturer (ODM) Wistron says it is in negotiations with tier one vendors to manufacture netbooks on thier behalf and will start production soon.
One the last manufacturing giant’s in the Far East not to produce ultra low cost portables Wistron has noted that the tougher global economic conditions has resulted in increased demand for the technology, said reports in Taiwan.
At present rivals Quanta Computer produces Acer’s Aspire One, Compal is building Dell’s E series netbooks, Inventec makes the Mini-Note PC for Hewlett-Packard and Pegatron Technology manufactures ASUS Eee PC.
Yesterday it emerged that ASUS, which has been unable to meet demand in Europe for its mobile Internet device shipped 1.7m units in the first half of the year, some 300,000 less than its initial forecast.
This was due to a shortage of Intel’s Atom processor but despite continued issues in sourcing components, ASUS believes it is on track to shift five million Eee PCs in 2008.
