2012: Dell placed orders for 10 million business-use notebooks to Compal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Taiwan-based ODM Compal Electronics has obtained orders for 10 million business-use notebooks to be delivered in 2012 from Dell, according to industry sources. Compal declined to comment.

Dell placed 2011 orders for 7-8 million business-use notebooks with Compal and 2-3 million units with Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry), but has decided to shift 2012 orders from Foxconn to Compal, the sources said. Compal is expected to account for 90% of Dell's total shipments of business-use notebooks in 2012, the sources indicated.

Compal's main notebook ODM clients will be Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba, in 2012, the sources noted, adding orders released from Hewlett-Packard and Asustek Computer to Compal are expected to increase from 2011 levels.

Business-use models will be a main source of growth in global notebook demand in the second half of 2011, the sources said, adding Compal expects to ship 48 million notebooks, 3.8 million tablet PCs and eight million LCD TVs in 2011.

Motorola will introduce several mid-range to high-end Android-enabled smartphones for US and Europe in 2011.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Compal Communications has quite a few smartphone projects on hand at the moment, the company indicated. It has long-term relations with Motorola and will introduce several mid-range to high-end Android-enabled smartphones for the US and Europe via JDM and ODM partnerships.

Handset maker Compal Communications expects smartphones to account for 90% of 2011 shipments, the company said, adding that smartphone shipments will begin to take off in the second quarter.

Compal Communications shipped 3.91 million units in 2010, far below the projected 10 million units. The disappointing result was largely due to less-than-expected orders from US clients.

Furthermore, by leveraging resources from the Compal business group, it was able to win tablet PC orders from some newcomers with introduction scheduled for the second and third quarters.

The US and Europe will be Compal Communications' main focus, and businesses in the entry-level segment will depend on the emerging markets such as China, the company said. Compal Communications already has a presence in the low-end smartphone market and will continue to work with China's smartphone vendors.