Lenovo to release more notebook orders to Taiwan ODMs

Lenovo plans to release monthly orders of 1-1.5 million notebooks to Taiwan ODMs for delivery starting in the first quarter of 2009, with Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics being in competition for the orders, according to sources. The vendor should choose its ODM partner within the next two weeks.

Notebook makers indicated that the 14-inch segment accounts for 60% of all of Lenovo's notebook shipments. While models featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio will account for 300,000-500,000 of the shipments, the total number of 14-inch shipments may reach 1.5 million units every month, the sources explained.

Currently, 90% of global notebook shipments came from Taiwan ODM companies, and among global top-ten vendors only Fujitsu and Lenovo manufacture notebooks for themselves. Lenovo launched a new series of consumer IdeaPad notebooks early this year and the shipment volumes are too big for Lenovo to handle production on its own, the sources pointed out.