Let's talk about the concept of 'Name Brand'
as it applies to laptop computers.
Virtually none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops, with about the only exceptions being Asus, MSI and Lenovo. Instead, Multi-National Brands (MNB) like DELL, Toshiba, HP, Compaq, Acer and Sony buy their laptops pre-built from what is called an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM). Some of the largest ODMs are Quanta, Compal, Clevo, Wistron, Arima, and Inventec...most of these names are unknown by most laptop users.
The ODM designs the shell and motherboard, and then assembles them with the screen, keyboard, processor, memory, DVDRW and Hard Drive, battery, wireless and Bluetooth card, and then installs the Microsoft Operating System to produce the final laptop that is then labeled and sold to the MNBs (who are sometimes erroneously called OEMs...erroneously because they rarely if ever touch the laptop until after it is completely built, labeled and boxed).
The MNB only advertises, sells and supports (usually outsourcing support to foreign companies) their "branded" laptop, and when warranty repair is required they will usually send it back to the ODM or some other 3rd party repair center instead of doing the warranty work themselves. They never built it, and they are not really equipped to do repairs. This is the "Tier One" MNB life cycle for laptops. Over the last few years laptops sales have had tremendous growth, and one of the things we are now seeing is that the MNBs are pitting the ODMs against each other in competition for huge contracts... more>>>