Quanta Computer Incorporated (TWSE: 2382) (Chinese: 廣達電腦; pinyin: Guǎngdá Diànnǎo) is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers and other electronic hardware. Its customers include Apple Inc., Dell, Hewlett-Packard Inc.,[2] Acer Inc., Alienware, Amazon.com, Cisco, Fujitsu, Gericom, Lenovo, LG, Maxdata, Microsoft, MPC, BlackBerry Ltd, Sharp Corporation, Siemens AG, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, Valve, Verizon Wireless, and Vizio.[citation needed]
Quanta has extended its businesses into enterprise network systems, home entertainment, mobile communication, automotive electronics, and digital home markets. The company also designs, manufactures and markets GPS systems, including handheld GPS, in-car GPS, Bluetooth GPS and GPS with other positioning technologies.[3]
Quanta Research title at COSCUP
Quanta Computer was announced as the original design manufacturer (ODM) for the XO-1 by the One Laptop per Child project on December 13, 2005, and took an order for one million laptops as of February 16, 2007.[4] In October 2008, it was announced that Acer would phase out Quanta from the production chain, and instead outsource manufacturing of 15 million Aspire One netbooks to Compal Electronics.
In 2011, Quanta designed servers in conjunction with Facebook as part of the Open Compute Project.[5]
It was estimated that Quanta had a 31% worldwide market share of notebook computers in the first quarter of 2008.[6]
History
The firm was founded in 1988 by Barry Lam, a Shanghai-born businessman who grew up in Hong Kong and received his education in Taiwan, with a starting capital of less than $900,000.[7][8] A first notebook prototype was completed in November 1988, with factory production beginning in 1990.[8]
Throughout the 1990s, Quanta established contracts with Apple Computers and Gateway, among others, opening an after-sales office in California in 1991 and another one in Augsburg, Germany in 1994. In 1996, Quanta signed a contract with Dell, making the firm Quanta’s largest customer at the time.[8]
In 2014, Quanta ranked 409th on Fortune’s Global 500 list.[9] 2016 is the strongest period with it being in 326.[10] In 2020, Quanta dropped to rank 377.[11]