Taiwan will overtake Japan as the world’s top notebook computer manufacturer this year according to the island’s Institute for Information Industry. By year end Taiwan’s production will hit 9.35 million units, about 1.5 million more than that of Japan, the institute forecast. This would give Taiwan a 49% share of the international market compared to Japan’s 41%. A key factor behind Taiwan’s notebook growth has been rapid increase in subcontracting to Taiwan producers by Japanese manufacturers, including NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp. Taiwan’s notebook PC output by volume is expected to increase by 53%, while by value the increase is expected to be 21% to $10.1bn dollars. NEC and Toshiba, which began full-scale supply from Taiwan on an OEM (original equipment manufacturing) basis this year, are expected to continue the pattern with Japan handling development and marketing, while Taiwan looks after production.
