because they’ve built a base of customers who respect the products or the
support and service they receive. Over the years a few companies have come
and gone, along with their products.
I’m absolutely not going to say that a new company won’t come along and
offer a great product at a great price with excellent support. All I can say is
that as I write these words, here are the top five sellers of PC-compatible
laptops:
Hewlett Packard, including subsidiary Compaq
DellToshiba
IBMFujitsu/SiemensAdd to that list the top seller of Apple iBook machines:
AppleNow here’s a deep dark secret well known within the industry but less so
among the general public: Many laptop sellers don’t manufacture their prod-
ucts, instead farming them out to independent Asian sources and sometimes
changing from one factory to another for different models. And even compa-
nies that actually assemble machines usually buy most of their components
from other sources. Finally, a big maker may maintain full control over the
production and assembly of its machines but do so in third-party factories.
So, Brand D may have many of the same parts as Brand C, but be put together
in two different factories. Or brand I may be assembled by the some company
that assembles Brand H, but using unrelated components. Or Brand T may
make or design all of its own components, but assemble its product in a third-
world factory.
And then all of this alphabet soup is likely to be scrambled into different
combinations the next time I sit down to think about it. Just as one example,
at the end of 2004 IBM sold its entire consumer PC business (including its
well-regarded ThinkPad laptop product line) to Lenovo, the largest Chinese
computer assemblycompany. Lenovo has made many IBM products for years
as well as those of other suppliers. With the sale, Lenovo is likely to take the
number-three position in worldwide sales after HP and Dell.
The fact is, when you buy a Dell or Toshiba or IBM made by Lenovo, you’re
trusting in the designand specificationcapabilities of the distributor (the
brand name), hoping that the factory or supplier they choose does a good
job of assembly and testing, and that either the seller or the distributor
stands behind its product with first-class support and service.
Chapter 4: When to Repair and When to Recycle 61