Notebook vendors headhunt R&D talent from ODM partners

Aaron Lee, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Monday 19 November 2012]

As notebook brand vendors grow more interested in-house R&D and manufacturing to promote their brand image, sources from the upstream supply chain have seen some notebook vendors starting to headhunt talent from their ODM partners.

Sources from notebook ODMs also pointed out that vendors have changed their outsourcing strategies and will check with their chassis and hinge suppliers for component materials and prices, and have their in-house R&D teams complete industrial design before handing the work to ODMs.

The sources pointed out that the new strategy is expected to expand in the notebook industry in 2013 and should benefit notebook brand vendors in terms of gaining more control over component costs as well as keeping their product designs confidential.

Acer and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have already started adopting the strategy.

Acer recently pointed out that the company will increase its R&D investment by 20% each year for the next three years. The company currently has about 1,000 R&D engineers. Lenovo will also continue strengthening its R&D and manufacturing abilities and is set to achieve an in-house production rate of 20% in 2013. Samsung's in-house production rate is expected to maintain at 85-90% in 2013.