Acer Flexes Market Muscle, Convinces Compal Not to Build Notebooks for Asus

Posted 02/08/2010 at 9:00am | by Paul Lilly

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Acer may have taken a cue from Intel in terms of learning how to play hardball. We're not sure what exactly the OEM said to Compal Electronics, but whatever it was, it worked. Citing anonymous sources in the notebook industry, news and rumor site DigiTimes reports that Compal has suddenly turned orders from Asus to produce volume notebooks.

Asus had originally wanted to keep 70 percent of its notebook production with Pegatron Technology and outsource the remaining 30 percent to Foxconn. But in order to save costs, Asus decided to cut back orders with Pegatron to 50 percent and outsource the other 20 percent to a third player.

That's where Compal comes in. Asus had interest in letting Compal produce anywhere from 10-20 percent of those remaining orders in the second half of 2010, but Acer, speaking in private, managed to convince Compal to turn the orders down.

What's interesting is that Acer's market muscle might extend beyond Compal. Quanta Computer, Wistron, and Inventec are also weary about working with Asus, the sources added.