Taiwan's contract PC suppliers expect Apple's all-in-one iMac desktop computers to give a big boost to the island's PC industry amid global market recession.

 

Apple plans to unveil the new version of iMac in the first quarter in 2008 and ship 800,000 systems of the personal computer, which combines monitor into the same case as the central  processing unit (CPU).

 

Institutional investors expect Quanta Computer to be the primary beneficiary of the Apple's new contracts, as Quanta has been Apple's exclusive contract suppler of desktop computers. However, Quanta has declined to make comments on the speculations.

 

Quanta is also contracted to supply Sony and NEC all-in-one computers.

 

Some institutional investors estimated Quanta and Wistron Corp. to have more advantages over other manufacturers to command market of contract all-in-one computers. Acer will introduce this computer in North America and Winstron, Acer's contract operation spin-off, will likely win the contracts.

 

BenQ Corp. and Lenovo are also planning to introduce the computer in 2009 and their component suppliers are developing all-in-one types for them.

 

Apple is the pioneer of the computer, incurring Dell, HP, Asustek, MicroStar to follow.

 

Asustek has also rolled out its all-in-one computer. The company's chairman, C.T. Shih, estimated this type of computer to account for around 30% of desktop market in two to three years.

 

Industry insiders point out that compared with normal desktop computers, all-in-one type saves 10-15% more costs thanks to its highly integrated design.