Quanta - iMac production

[MacRumors]

As reported by MacNN, this bloomberg article reports:

Quanta Computer Inc., Taiwan's largest notebook-computer maker, received an order from Apple Computer Inc. to manufacture a new model of iMac desktop computers, the Economic Daily News said, without citing anyone.

The order for more than a million iMacs a year starting in the first quarter of 2002 is Quanta's first contract to produce desktop computers for another company, the paper said.

It's unclear if this is independant confirmation or simply re-reporting of the previous rumors.

 

[atlascott]

After reading an article in Wired about how Microsoft outsourced hardware manufacturing for the xbox and saved big by doing it, i actually think it is a great idea for Apple to outsource manufacturing to the extent it can, and as long as they keep a hawkish eye on QC...maybe the prices get more competitive, too...

 

[have some aphex acid]

didn't we hear this before?

didn't this kind of news come at us months and months ago and it turned out to be a misunderstanding?

Please forgive me if i seem a bit skeptical.

 

[deusvede]

Possibly a good move...

That way Apple could maintain their benefit margin and low the prices (so I could by one )

 

[blakespot]

Many laptops

"for another company" ??

Quanta makes Dell and Gateway's laptops as well. And they make the Netpliance i-opener (mine pictured below):

...which I hacked...

blakespot

 

[Durandal7]

give me a break

A nice trick. Make false claims about a flat panel imac and let your stock soar.Let's not forget the recent wide screen ibook fiasco.

 

[Macmaniac]

New iMac

This is good news, iMac needs an overhaul and this is the time for it. If it is flat panal I wish i would have waited. Got my new 700mhz snow last weekend

 

[pkradd]

Atlascott,

Apple has been outsourcing iBooks, Ti Books and iMacs for several years now.

 

[atlascott]

Ah!

Thats probably why Microsoft tried it--Apple did it first!!!

I know that one of the reasons that Apple bought out that Apple clone maker whose name I cannot remember (EVEN THO I OWNED ONE!!!! Was it PowerPC?) was to adopt their manufacturing and online sales model...

Any anyone with a new Mac should not be complaining! A new Mac remains current alot longer than a new PC!

Still, I cannot help the feeling that if Apple lowered their prices, especially with the backlash against Win XP that is going down, we might be looking at more like 6 or 7 % market share...

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re: didn't we hear this before?

Originally posted by have some aphex acid
didn't this kind of news come at us months and months ago and it turned out to be a misunderstanding?

Please forgive me if i seem a bit skeptical.

yes this exact same article (word for word as far as i can recall from memorY) was posted on a number of rumor sites about 4 or 5 months ago.

some people atributed it to a mix up with ibooks, but as far as i could tell it was just a big hoax.

makes me wonder about the authenticity of some of the other lcd imac "reports"

 

[dantec]

If Quanta is making these new iMac's, where were they being built before?

My dad's office has Rev. D iMacs which were built in Malaysia, on of the cheapest iMac (summer 2000) was built in China. etc. etc.

I think, due to their price range, the cheapest iMacs are built in China, more expensive in Malaysia, and I have no idea about the SE because I've never used one.

 

[jefhatfield]

assembly technicians

it is a good thing that hardware assembly is done in asia since the price of production is cheaper, except in japan, and the world's best asembly techs live there since they have been doing more of this kind of work than anybody else for years

even though a lot of great products are developed and invented in asia, california is still the leader in tech and biotech inventions and breakthroughs though this might change since texas, nevada, arizona, and the eastern seaboard have up and coming companies plus some biggies like ibm, compaq, ti, and segway

 

[rjgjonker]

Originally posted by dantec
If Quanta is making these new iMac's, where were they being built before?

My dad's office has Rev. D iMacs which were built in Malaysia, on of the cheapest iMac (summer 2000) was built in China. etc. etc.

I think, due to their price range, the cheapest iMacs are built in China, more expensive in Malaysia, and I have no idea about the SE because I've never used one.

Current iMacs are assembled in the Czech Republic (in a Panasonic television assembly plant). I remember previous series were assembled in South Korea. Rev A and B were assembled in Wales and Singapore.

 

[MaurOS X]

Re: Many laptops

Originally posted by blakespot
"for another company" ??

Quanta makes Dell and Gateway's laptops as well. And they make the Netpliance i-opener (mine pictured below):

Hi, Blackespot and all the people:

The article says: "...is Quanta's first contract to produce desktop computers for another company".

This mean DESKTOP COMPUTERS... Sure, Quanta has made many laptops to many companies, including PowerBooks and iBooks, but never made desktops...

Then, my supposition about "why Quanta" and no the other factories: because Quanta is specialized in portables, then in LCD monitors integrated to PC or Macs, and the new iMac will have LCD monitor... I think it's the reason...

What do you think?

Best regards from Colombia,

MaurOS X

 

[Xapplimatic]

Netpliance..

That Netpliance thing has got the ugliest keyboard I've seen since the PC Jr. lol.. Perhaps that part was personally designed by Mike Dell? Lol. Well, that's about the form factor of the new iMac I would assume.. a flatish base of some kind where the internals are including drive bays, and then an LCD coming out of it on a swivelling base with a tilt and an Apple Pro keyboard.

 

[blakespot]

keyboard...

Xapplimatic,

That is not the keyboard that came with the i-opener. I ordered it specially---it's a Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2. Advertised in Linux magazines, it's the smallest "full-size" keyboard available. I got it because there's little free space on my desk (due to the other machines, a NeXTSTATION on the left and an Amiga 2000 on the right). It was $70.



blakespot

 

[eyelikeart]

Who really cares that much?

What I want to know is how many people here are waiting for the iMac to be redone so they can run out and buy one? The way I see it, if u aren't waiting to buy one, why care so much about where it's made or processor is in it?

 

[eyelikeart]

Re: How hacked is it?

Originally posted by blakespot
"for another company" ??

Quanta makes Dell and Gateway's laptops as well. And they make the Netpliance i-opener (mine pictured below):

...which I hacked...
blakespot

How did u hack it anyway?

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re: Who really cares that much?

Originally posted by eyelikeart
What I want to know is how many people here are waiting for the iMac to be redone so they can run out and buy one? The way I see it, if u aren't waiting to buy one, why care so much about where it's made or processor is in it?

we care because we are mac fans and its fun to discuss mac hardware and where one of our favorite companies might be taking us. most people here are such hardcore mac fans that they would probably never buy a consumer level mac like the imac (unless we are buying for a friend or relative) but we still love the imac and we still think we could give apple some advice on where to take us.

o and this quanta think, totally a hoax. im surprised more of you dont remember reading this same article the last time it was posted. if it is a different article then i have to say its still a hoax because it is clearly emulating the first article which also was a hoax. i think many of us would bet our computers that the lcd imac is coming in january (im still not that confident) and the hoax is just another part of the hoopla.

 

[jefhatfield]

i am not a graphics/gaming/video junky

so therefore i really don't NEED a G4 tower or G5 tower because that is more power than i realistically need

i am interested in the next comsumer level apple desktop because:

1) i have an original ibook and i really never needed the mobility since i never take it anywhere

2) i want to (yikes) replace that ibook with an apple consumer desktop like a G4 imac or a 1 GHz imac or a flat panel imac and have a new apple to keep me happy for the next two and a half years or so; three if i can stretch it that far

i am just as much an apple/mac fan as any poster here but for paractical reasons, i will mostly need imacs and ibooks to keep me happy with the modest needs of word processing, email, internet, light gaming, and light graphics (such as christmas cards for clients), and remember (if this means anything), a professional apple computer from 18 months ago usually doesn't benchmark any better than a current imac so i can't justify the high cost of a professonal apple desktop or laptop computer for any real reason...except for techlust

and for those of you who laugh at me trying to keep a consumer ibook or imac for three years (36 months), you can send me all your extra un-needed funds

 

[atlascott]

"Consumer level"

Dude, there is nothing wrong with an iMac (well, other than they need more video RAM...if youre gonna sell a consumer machine, make sure it can play games!) I WISH I had a new iMac! My buddy has an iMac 400 MHz DV (had it since it first came out) and it runs the heck out of everything! Obviously, you want to get the fastest hardware you can afford at the time, but iMacs are really practical machines that are cool and capable! I mean, unless you run Photoshop for a living (or some other Velocity Engine enabled app) there isnt a big difference between the G3 and G4.

 

[rekras]

why is there a backlash against XP? I'm just curious. I hate it myself, but i wanna know why PC users hate it.

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re:

Originally posted by atlascott
Dude, there is nothing wrong with an iMac (well, other than they need more video RAM...if youre gonna sell a consumer machine, make sure it can play games!) I WISH I had a new iMac! My buddy has an iMac 400 MHz DV (had it since it first came out) and it runs the heck out of everything! Obviously, you want to get the fastest hardware you can afford at the time, but iMacs are really practical machines that are cool and capable! I mean, unless you run Photoshop for a living (or some other Velocity Engine enabled app) there isnt a big difference between the G3 and G4.

i wasnt saying there was anything wrong with the consumer line. i was just saying that it seemed like most of the posters here seem to be professionals. personally ive got a g3 powerbook at home and use g4s at work. my g3 powerbook has lasted since 1999 so im proud of the girl but she is starting to show her age, especially after using the g4s at work. they crank through a data set in like a couple weeks. ive tried doing the same data on my g3 and it took over a month of processing. imagine not being able to use your computer for a month will it chugs away at some data set! still i cant justify another computer until i move to another university and get the nice startup funds for a new computer.

 

[jefhatfield]

what the heck is a data set?

if someone needs a really heavy duty computer which takes two weeks or a month to compute on current machines, i could see the need for apple to offer a quad processor model on a BTO basis on the apple store

i am sure glad i do not need that type of computing power and kick me if i ever go into a job like that because fixing computers is a pain and tedium enough for me but i do know some programmers who live on a machine, make good money for a few years, buy a few cool yet expensive toys, and end up more broke or in debt than they were in the first place and realized they squandered some of the best years of their life...not the life for me

what kind of job takes computing on a powerbook for a month and do you have to monitor the thing comstantly...it sounds like a good torture for bin laden when we catch him

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

Re: what the heck is a data set?

Originally posted by jefhatfield
if someone needs a really heavy duty computer which takes two weeks or a month to compute on current machines, i could see the need for apple to offer a quad processor model on a BTO basis on the apple store

i am sure glad i do not need that type of computing power and kick me if i ever go into a job like that because fixing computers is a pain and tedium enough for me but i do know some programmers who live on a machine, make good money for a few years, buy a few cool yet expensive toys, and end up more broke or in debt than they were in the first place and realized they squandered some of the best years of their life...not the life for me

what kind of job takes computing on a powerbook for a month and do you have to monitor the thing comstantly...it sounds like a good torture for bin laden when we catch him

hahaha. i work in a genetics lab. so our data sets are a few thousand base pairs for a few hundred individuals that need to be cranked through PAUP (phylogenetic analysis using parsimony) to create a cladogram. the sequencer is hooked up to a g3 computer and that does the initial analysis doing base calls and all that then we import the sequences into PAUP and set up the analysis parameters and let it go. doesnt take any monitoring really. just keep checking in on it and see if its done yet. there are versions of paup written for the supercomputers unix and dual g4s but they arent updated as much as those written for just normal computers. for a few of the really huge data sets like complete mitochondrial sequences we use a super computer but that gets expensive. apple typically sends us new computers a few months before they come out so they help us out a bit but as far as offering quad processors or anything i couldnt see that happening. what id actually like to see is a laptop specifically for scientific use so that when we are doing field work in the rain or 120 dgree heat in tunisia or panama o the freezing temperatures in the rockies or high sierra or antartica we can still use a computer. but anyway my little g3 sure isnt much use for tasks that take dual g4s weeks to compute, got to leave that to the big boys at work.