Dell places contract LCD TV orders with Taiwan suppliers
Nov 17, 2005
Dell Computer Corp. of the US recently placed contract orders for 32- and 37-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs with Taiwan's Compal Electronics Inc., and orders for 26-inch models with Lite-On Technology Corp. Industry sources said that Taiwan's contract suppliers would be the largest beneficiaries after leading international information technology (IT) brands continuously venture into LCD TV business, due to their long-term supply ties with the foreign IT giants. Dell, the world's No. 1 PC brand, started to move into home-entertainment and audio/video markets due to the ever-thinning margins for sales of personal computers (PCs). The move has also prompted the firm's original desktop and notebook PC contract suppliers in Taiwan to further diversify their product lines. According to Dell's third-quarter financial report, the firm failed to achieve its revenue and profit goals for the quarter, and saw the revenue of its core desktop PC sales drop for the first time. In the past, industry sources said, the living-room entertainment market was mainly dominated by big home-appliance and consumer-electronic brands in Japan and South Korea, but now the situation is changing as more and more international IT giants, such as Dell, Microsoft, and Intel, etc., are actively tapping the business and enter face-to-face competition with traditional home-appliance makers. Thanks to their long-term cooperation ties with leading IT brands, the sources said, Taiwan's major IT contract suppliers are also entering the so-called living-room business. Another advantage of local contract suppliers is strong support from island's thriving large-sized thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel industry. So far this year, several local panel makers, including AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. (CPT), have kicked off mass production at their 5.5th- and sixth-generation new plants. The new-generation panel plants focus on the production of large-sized LCD TV panels, especially 32- and 37-inch models. The ample supply of panels in Taiwan has further strengthened the competitiveness of LCD TV contract suppliers in winning orders from leading IT brands.
| Major LCD TV Brands and Contract Suppliers in Taiwan | IT Brands | Taiwan Contract Suppliers | Dell | Compal, Lite-On | ViewSonic | Teco, Sampo, Jeans | Acer | Quanta, TPV | Channel Brands | 　 | BestBuy | BenQ, Quanta | Wal-mart | Tatung | Home-appliance Brands | 　 | Sony | AmTRAN, BenQ | Sharp | TPV, Mitac, Sampo | Hitachi | Tatung, Copmpal | JVC | Tatung | Thomson | BenQ, TPV | LGE | Ya Hsin |
Source: The companies
Source & copyright: CENS
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