[Ham-Computers] RE: Re-brand vs OEM - was Choosing a compatible laptop

[Hsu, Aaron]

-----Original Message-----
KD4E wrote:

...though my point was that whether Quantas builts it per Compaq specs or
their own a person buying the notebook would get the identical quality
regardless of the nameplate ... and likely save since they wouldn't be
paying for the Compaq nameplate, advertising, corporate overhead, etc.

*** snip ***
-----------------------------

Just noticed I forgot to clarify something earlier.  Even though an OEM
manufactures product for another company, it doesn't necessarily mean that
anything they produce is of the same quality.  Remember, ultimate quality of
the released product is a specification of the contracting company - the OEM
just needs to ensure that the specified quality control checks are in place.
A common thing that occurs is that product that has failed a particular
contracting company's QC checks will be sold to another contracting company
that has less stringent QC requirements.  This can be categorized as
"re-labeling".

A common example of the differences in QC checks is with CD-R's.  There are
only a small handful of CD-R manufacturers, yet there are dozens of "brands"
of CD-R's.  Ritek is one of the largest manufacturers of CD-R's and OEM's to
TDK, Imation, Memorex, Philips, Maxell, and many "house" and "off" brands.
However, there is a BIG difference in quality between the brands even though
they're from the same CD factory (Ritek).  Each company sets a QC standard
and those standards must be met before they will by any particular batch of
CD-R's.  The batches that don't qualify are most often sold to a company
with less strigent requirements.  They are then offered to the "off" brands
who really don't care about the media quality as they sell them for pennies
- often without warranty.  There are many websites out there that have C1/C2
testing info (a measurement of error levels) on the various "brands" of
CD-R's.  You'll notice that CD-R's from the same factory can vary in quality
from excellent to pure crap, even if produced on the exact same day (per
printed date code).  The only CD-R manufacturer that I know of that has high
internal QC regardless of the contracting label is Taiyo-Yuden (TY).  TY
CD-R's are highly sought after and can sometimes be found re-labeled under
Fujifilm, older TDK spindles, Pioneer, Sony, and some others.  Most have
moved away from TY due to cost (compared to other CD-R OEMs - Ritek, CMC,
ProDisc, LeadData, etc).  Microboards is the only label I know of that
currently exclusively sells CD-R's from TY.

So, even though one buys product from a factory that OEMs to a major
"label", it doesn't mean that the product is of the same quality as that
specified by that "label".  Granted, it shows that they have the ability to
meet high QC specs, but it doesn't mean they do that for every product they
manufacture.  I don't mean to bash any one (or company)...just want to make
sure that people don't arbitrarily assume the quality of a product because
that company produces (OEMs) a product for another well-known company (or
companies).


73,
  - Aaron, NN6O

p.s.  BTW, thanks for the link to the OEM discussion.  The discussion does
point to one of my concerns mentioned earlier...parts availability.  Quanta
may be a large OEM, but laptop parts are often *very* model specific.
Considering the *really* short life-cycle of laptops these days, it's best
to know that drives/batteries/parts will be available 2-years from now - be
it from an OEM or a major "label".  I'll put my bet on the major label.  If
it were a desktop system, I wouldn't be as concerned.


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/mixed
  multipart/alternative
    text/plain (text body -- kept)
    text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment.  Attachments are not allowed.  To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html  ---