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r marketing mix activities with little consideration for the development of long-term brand recognition. This brings a problem when greater emphasis is given to a product's features than to the positioning of its brand-name (Zajas & Crowley 1995; Kapferer 2004).

Taiwan's Notebook Personal Computer Industry

As a result of the increasing transition of consumers from desktop PCs to notebook PCs, Taiwan's Notebook PC market showed considerable growth in terms of shipment volume. In 2007, 90,165 thousand units were shipped with annual market growth rate reaching 42.1%. MIC (2008) projects that Taiwan's notebook PC market will maintain double digit growth until 2011.

There is manufacturing competitiveness of Taiwanese notebook personal computer industry during its developing stages of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), and original brand manufacturers (OBMs). A number of trends are affecting the cost of components and materials used to manufacture PCs. The rising cost of oil, China's newly enacted labour law (which has increased the cost of assembly labour), reduced tax incentives and the appreciation of the Renminbi (RMB) against the U.S. dollar are challenging the PC manufacturing ecosystem's ability to maintain profit margins. Currently, profits run at about 5%. The top ODMs of notebook PCs have stated that they are unable to absorb the increased costs and plan to pass them on to clients (Tsai 2008).

On 21 May 2008, Simon Lin, chairman of Wistron, told Taiwan's Digitimes that Wistron would raise contract manufacturing prices. This follows similar statements in recent weeks from Compal and Quanta. Gartner (2008) has confirmed the disclosures with all three companies which controlled more than 69% of worldwide notebook PC production in 2007 (refer to Table 1-1). It is the first time these three have attempted, almost simultaneously, to raise prices, even at the risk of losing orders. However, the group carries some weight, which will likely strengthen their position in negotiations with vendors such as HP and Dell.

Due to challenges to their competitive advantages, Taiwanese hi-tech enterprises have to consider whether to stay in the OEM field or develop their own brand marketing strategies. Some corporations choose to specialise in the OEM such as Hong Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (Foxconn) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). On the other hand, several firms, including Acer, Asus, and BenQ, recognised the importance of their own brands and have switched their investments and endeavours towards high value-added activities such as research and development, product innovation, and brand building (Chen et al 2007).

The goal of all these development strategies is to strengthen competitiveness under the increasing pressure of the changing world environment (Tsai & Hung 2007). 'At most Taiwanese companies, profit margins on sales of branded computers are roughly five times higher than on sales of computers and parts to resellers like HP and Dell', said Jerry Shen, Asustek's chief executive officer (2008). Taiwanese contract manufacturers such as Micro-Star 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。