Laptop Computer Brands

The most important part of buying a laptop computer is knowing what you want to do with it after you get it. Even after you figure this out you will get hosed if you go into buying a laptop computer without some background information. You need to have information about the brand names you will see on notebook computers. You need to know who actually makes the computers. You need to know who makes the parts that go into these computers. You might be surprised when you find these things out.

COMPUTER BRANDS -- Market Share

Real up to date figures aren't available for the end of 2008, but I'll give you the most recent numbers I could find.

Manufacturer	Market Share Q3 2008 World	Market Share Q2 2008 U.S.
HP	19.7%	21.2%
Acer	17.1%	14.4%
Dell	13.0%	21.7%
Toshiba	8.6%	9.0%
Asus	8.6%	N.A.
Lenovo	6.7%	N.A.
Apple	4.1%	10.6%
Sony	4.1%	N.A.
Fujitsu/Fujitsu-Siemens	3.1%	N.A.
All Others	14.9%	N.A.

Acer includes Gateway laptop computers (who owns E-machines) and Packard-Bell, companies Acer owns but who market computers under those laptop brands.

Acer and Asus gain significantly in market share because they are 1 (Acer) and 2 (Asus) in the minilaptop or netbook segment. Between them they shipped about two thirds of all netbooks world-wide.

COMPUTER MAKERS -- Market Share

You might think the companies listed above are computer makers, but you would be wrong. They are laptop computer brands. 90% of the laptop computers in the world are made by OMD laptop manufacturers in Taiwan. They outsource much of the actual building to factories in main-land China. I dont have last year's numbers but here is a list of the manufacturers who built more than 85% of the notebooks in 2006 and who they sold to in 2007.

Manufacturer	Market Share	Sold TO
Quanta Computer Incorporated	33%	HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Gateway(Acer), Apple, Alienware, and Lenovo
Compal Electronics Company	21%	HP, Acer, and Dell
Wistron Corporation	15%	HP, Dell, NEC, Acer, and Lenovo
Inventec Corporation	1o%	HP, Toshiba
ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (ASUS)	7%	Apple, Sony, and Samsung

Other manufacturers and their customers are
Flextronics International Ltd. -- sells to HP/Compaq, NEC, and Dell.
Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS)(including Uniwill) -- sells to Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Dell.
Clevo -- Sager

When you see this list, it makes it hard to believe there are real differences between different laptop computer brands. Looking at who makes the actual parts doesn't make believing in differences any easier.

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