Compal Ups Production Capacity in Kunshan of Mainland China

Taipei, April 15, 2008 (CENS)--Compal Electronics Corp., one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of notebook computers (NBs), will expand production capacity at its fourth plant in Kunshan of Jiangsu Province, mainland China.

The expanded plant will begin mass production sometime in the second quarter of this year to facilitate delivery of low-priced PCs ordered by the U.S.-based Dell Computer Inc., along with the growth in shipments of NBs.

Recently, Dell has decided to set foot in selling low-priced PCs to take after rivals as Asustek Computer Inc., Hewlett Packard Corp. and Acer Inc. To that end, Dell has chosen Compal as its contract manufacturer, which has seen tight production capacity since the beginning of the fourth quarter of last year.

Seeing the successful introduction of the budget-priced "Eee" PC by Asustek last year, Hewlett Packard will introduce the US$500 Mini-Note NB equipped with 8.9-inch screen and VIA Technologies' C7-M microprocessor at the end of April; while Acer will debut its low-priced, Quanta Computer-manufactured NB equipped with Intel Corp.'s "Atom" microprocessor sometime in June.

Dell said it would introduce PCs similar to Hewlett Packard's UMPC-series PCs, with such brand-new PCs to be smaller, lighter, and more powerful in mobile-communication functions, as well as equipped with software developed by Zing Co., a well-known music broadcaster, so that end-users can access more conveniences in managing music and image files online.

Compal president J.T. Chen noted that his company would introduce low-priced computers sometime in the second half of this year. But Chen noted that shipment of low-priced PCs would account for less than 10% of the company's total shipment this year.

Compal shipped more than 23 million PCs last year and will target 32 million units this year, a goal which the firm plans to meet by speeding the pace of expanding its fourth plant in Kunshan.

With the added capacity from the fourth plant in Kunshan, Compal will see maximum annual production capacity reach 40 million PCs in China.

Once expansion of the Kunshan fourth plant is completed, Compal will also step up building a new plant in Vietnam, which is expected to begin mass production sometime in 2009.