Imac And Quanta

[tagliatelle]

Quanta Computer will ship new 17 and 19-inch iMacs beginning in 3Q

David Tzeng, Taipei; Chou Hua-hsin, DigiTimes.com [Friday 31 May 2002]


Industry sources said Quanta Computer will start producing the latest 17 and 19-inch iMacs in the third quarter, suggesting a strengthening partnership between the PC contract maker and Apple Computer.

The popular iMac has become a main revenue driver for Quanta as uncertainty still clouds the desktop PC industry and signs of a recovery appear weak. The company shipped 235,000 units to Apple in the first quarter, and despite TFT LCD supply crunches in April that halted production for a week, analysts predict second-quarter shipments could grow to 350,000 units.

Meanwhile, Quanta is under pressure as some Taiwanese electronics manufacturing service (EMS) companies are offering contract prices up to 30% lower than those of Quanta to woo iMac orders. However, industry observers say Quanta will likely be able to stay above the fray of price wars due to its strong ties with Apple.

Signaling that it remains a committed partner, Quanta has revamped its facilities to meet the complex assembly processes of the iMac, which has a dome-like base with a scalable arm attached to a 15-inch flat-panel monitor. Production lines for the iMac are charging ahead on three production shifts. If it were not for the shortage of key components, sources said Quanta could have supplied at least 200,000 iMacs a month.

Quanta is the only company assembling iMacs for Apple. Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) supplies the machine’s cables and assembles part of its steel arm. Catcher Technology and a supplier of Quanta supply zinc-alloy bases for the iMac.

Related stories:

Quanta said to land contract for 3.5 million Dell business notebooks (May 28)

Acer, Quanta join forces to launch portable desktop PCs (May 16)

Improved iMac shipments to boost Quanta revenues in March (Mar 22)

 

[wdw_]

I soooooo hope this is true.

 

[serpicolugnut]

First of all, Quanta is losing a big chunk of Apple's business to another supplier, because Quanta can't get certain parts.

Second, Quanta has a tendency to shoot off their mouth and "announce" products they are producing for Apple, that turn out to be something completely different. Remember when Quanta announced they had secured the contract to produce the new flat panel iMac, and it actually turned out they were producing iBooks instead?

Whoever is running that company needs to read their NDA and realize if they keep leaking product info, Apple will eventually tire of them and pull their remaining business.