14 DAY TRIAL // ECS has recently bought Uniwill Computer Corp which is a contract maker of notebooks and with this acquisition, it hopes to enter the European and US markets. ECS currently ships about 1 million laptops per year. Add it up to the 1.8 million that Uniwill ships and you get a total of 2.8 million pieces, enough to compete other large laptop contract produces such as Compal or Quanta.
Although ECS has been producing laptops for 5 years, it's still a rather unknown company in this business. Various ideas to improve the company's image and production capabilities such as the 2001 acquisition of Alpha-Top manufacturer failed when 2 years later, the subsidiary was sold to Asustek Computer, who then renamed it to Asusalpha.
So it's not a new idea, nor is it a bright one. And the success of it mainly depends on the ability to produce notebooks that are essentially cheaper than everyone else's.
ECS will integrate Uniwill brand in December the 1st when the transaction of shares will be completed. Following that, products will carry the "ECS" brand and will target the market share actually held by Quanta, Compal and Asustek. A healthy dose of luck is needed in order to penetrate a market where Quanta ships about 10 times more laptops than the combined forces of ECS and Uniwill.