Apple shopping for third notebook manufacturer
Rising notebook sales at Apple Computer have sent the company shopping for a third contract manufacturer in order to stamp out more systems.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reports that the Mac maker may eventually favor Foxconn, its current iPod and desktop PC manufacturer.
The Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been looking to do new business with Apple, specifically offering to build the company's 15-inch MacBook Pro high-end notebooks. No further details were reported.
Notebooks sales at Apple have risen sharply since the start of the year. Between the beginning of January and the end of June, the company's share of the US notebook market doubled from 6 to 12 percent.
During its most recent fiscal quarter, Apple sold a company record 798,000 notebook systems, most of them Intel-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
By current arrangements, Apple's MacBooks are manufactured by Asustek while Quanta handles the MacBook Pro line.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reports that the Mac maker may eventually favor Foxconn, its current iPod and desktop PC manufacturer.
The Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been looking to do new business with Apple, specifically offering to build the company's 15-inch MacBook Pro high-end notebooks. No further details were reported.
Notebooks sales at Apple have risen sharply since the start of the year. Between the beginning of January and the end of June, the company's share of the US notebook market doubled from 6 to 12 percent.
During its most recent fiscal quarter, Apple sold a company record 798,000 notebook systems, most of them Intel-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
By current arrangements, Apple's MacBooks are manufactured by Asustek while Quanta handles the MacBook Pro line.
Comments
a) I give Apple a thumbs up as this is the best possible thing they could do. Horray for Apple. Horray for Jobs. Boooo the rest of the known universe
or
b) APPLE IS TEH DOOMED
coffee, anyone?
i'm wondering what the appropriate reply for the first post is to this thread. i figure it's either
a) I give Apple a thumbs up as this is the best possible thing they could do. Horray for Apple. Horray for Jobs. Boooo the rest of the known universe
or
b) APPLE IS TEH DOOMED
coffee, anyone?
I vote for "A"
Now that Apple has transitioned their product lineup to Intel, with no changes to cases save for the MacBook in a bid to not scare off Apple customers used to PowerPC, they can start to do more radical things with the case designs and product matrix.
Since this is a rumor site, I think the obvious thing to say is that this means Apple is going to release a third laptop option soon. I'd imagine it'll be the 'subnotebook' people were talking about.
Now that Apple has transitioned their product lineup to Intel, with no changes to cases save for the MacBook in a bid to not scare off Apple customers used to PowerPC, they can start to do more radical things with the case designs and product matrix.
That might be the obvious thing to say on a rumor site.. but the more realistic is demand is too high for the current two factories to meet, so a third is needed to satisfy that demand.
That might be the obvious thing to say on a rumor site.. but the more realistic is demand is too high for the current two factories to meet, so a third is needed to satisfy that demand.
Stop spoiling our fun! *waaah*
Stop spoiling our fun! *waaah*
Oh, please!
I'm also hoping for a subnotebook, but I'm not optimistic about the chances of one. The fact is that Apple seems to have good-size holes in the middle of their lineups. There's a $500 difference between a black MacBook and a MacBook Pro and even more if you take out the premium for black. There's a huge, yawning crevasse between the most expensive iMac at $1700 and the basic Mac Pro at $2500 (stock configuration), more if you don't already own a screen for the Mac Pro to attach to. What's a person to do if he needs more than an iMac but can't justify another $800? Yeah, you can strip down the Mac Pro via BTO, but that still leaves the machine at over $2100 with a paltry 1GB of RAM and 160GB of storage. Not chicken feed, to be sure.
Oh, yeah? Are you calling us childish? Well, your mother uses Dells! :P
oh snaps, son! he said yo momma!
=P