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Lost their magic once they split Asus into three companies (to satisfy Apple from what I understand), thus became Asus, Pegatron and Unihan to remove conflict o

Lost their magic once they split Asus into three companies (to satisfy Apple from what I understand), thus became Asus, Pegatron and Unihan to remove conflict of interest for their ODM side of the business

flangola7 3y ago
Apple? How are they involved?
- thevagrant 3y ago
  Asus was very successful and at one point had captured a large portion of the motherboard market due to their extremely reliable motherboards at that time. (I recall reading many years ago as many as 1 in 4 computers were using an Asus mobo). Asus started to branch into making other equipment. Their notebooks were good quality and their premium notebooks were innovative and risked eating into markets of other manufacturers. Complaints were raised that Asus had a conflict of interest as they were an ODM making equipment for companies like Apple but then able to leverage that to assist their own business. Asus was then split to remove conflict of interests.
  - heyoni 3y ago
    Meanwhile Samsung is totally free to make parts for Apple and directly compete in a hundred other categories…times have changed?
    - carlmr 3y ago
      Maybe Samsung just has a stronger legal department.
      - heyoni 3y ago
        I read somewhere else in this thread that Asus was actually making the entire MacBook plastic laptop which I guess is very different from just provider components.
pdimitar 3y ago
Huh? Where can we read more?
- thevagrant 3y ago
  "In 2007, Apple significantly dialed down its MacBook manufacturing business with Asus and the company had to respond. That same year, they announced that they would hive off their original design manufacturing business into a 100% owned subsidiary called Pegatron. Management hoped this would reassure their customers that improper information cannot be shared across lines. But the conflicts of interest persisted. And even got worse when Asus released its hit Eee laptop product. The first so-called netbook, the low-end PC sold 5 million units at the start and presented a real threat to Pegatron's customers. They were eating in other companies' market share. " https://asianometry.substack.com/p/asus-explained-a-rare-taiwanese-global https://asianometry.substack.com/p/asus-explained-a-rare-tai...
  - pdimitar 3y ago
    Article is a bit big -- I'll read it but in the meantime, what did Apple do exactly? They "dialed down its MacBook manufacturing business with Asus"? What does that mean? Asus would have been their hardware supplier, or?
    - thevagrant 3y ago
      Asus made products for Apple and others. An example from memory is the sleek plastic Apple macbook (white and black) from 2006 was made by Asus. At the same time, Asus were making laptops under their own brand which showed a lot of potential e.g Asus W7J which had magnesium body. The idea was Asus could use knowledge they obtained making products for others to make their own products. Not only that, the Asus brand was becoming more known, the risk was the consumer might buy Asus products (they made quality products for those other big brands right? Why not go direct). Apple was rumored to pull back from using Asus as a manufacturing partner for this reason.
      - 3y ago
zamadatix 3y ago
I'd wager most people aren't thinking 13-15 years back when discussing the sudden decline of ASUS. They'd done a lot of cool stuff since then.
- thevagrant 3y ago
  They have, I agree. Perhaps it is my rose tinted glasses. I suspected the split would lead to pressure to create more 'hit' products and eventually impact quality. It's hard to express how rock solid Asus motherboards were perceived back then.

flangola7 3y ago

Apple? How are they involved?

thevagrant 3y ago
Asus was very successful and at one point had captured a large portion of the motherboard market due to their extremely reliable motherboards at that time. (I recall reading many years ago as many as 1 in 4 computers were using an Asus mobo). Asus started to branch into making other equipment. Their notebooks were good quality and their premium notebooks were innovative and risked eating into markets of other manufacturers. Complaints were raised that Asus had a conflict of interest as they were an ODM making equipment for companies like Apple but then able to leverage that to assist their own business. Asus was then split to remove conflict of interests.
- heyoni 3y ago
  Meanwhile Samsung is totally free to make parts for Apple and directly compete in a hundred other categories…times have changed?
  - carlmr 3y ago
    Maybe Samsung just has a stronger legal department.
    - heyoni 3y ago
      I read somewhere else in this thread that Asus was actually making the entire MacBook plastic laptop which I guess is very different from just provider components.

pdimitar 3y ago

Huh? Where can we read more?

thevagrant 3y ago
"In 2007, Apple significantly dialed down its MacBook manufacturing business with Asus and the company had to respond. That same year, they announced that they would hive off their original design manufacturing business into a 100% owned subsidiary called Pegatron. Management hoped this would reassure their customers that improper information cannot be shared across lines. But the conflicts of interest persisted. And even got worse when Asus released its hit Eee laptop product. The first so-called netbook, the low-end PC sold 5 million units at the start and presented a real threat to Pegatron's customers. They were eating in other companies' market share. " https://asianometry.substack.com/p/asus-explained-a-rare-taiwanese-global https://asianometry.substack.com/p/asus-explained-a-rare-tai...
- pdimitar 3y ago
  Article is a bit big -- I'll read it but in the meantime, what did Apple do exactly? They "dialed down its MacBook manufacturing business with Asus"? What does that mean? Asus would have been their hardware supplier, or?
  - thevagrant 3y ago
    Asus made products for Apple and others. An example from memory is the sleek plastic Apple macbook (white and black) from 2006 was made by Asus. At the same time, Asus were making laptops under their own brand which showed a lot of potential e.g Asus W7J which had magnesium body. The idea was Asus could use knowledge they obtained making products for others to make their own products. Not only that, the Asus brand was becoming more known, the risk was the consumer might buy Asus products (they made quality products for those other big brands right? Why not go direct). Apple was rumored to pull back from using Asus as a manufacturing partner for this reason.
    - 3y ago

zamadatix 3y ago

I'd wager most people aren't thinking 13-15 years back when discussing the sudden decline of ASUS. They'd done a lot of cool stuff since then.

thevagrant 3y ago
They have, I agree. Perhaps it is my rose tinted glasses. I suspected the split would lead to pressure to create more 'hit' products and eventually impact quality. It's hard to express how rock solid Asus motherboards were perceived back then.