Compal said to have turned down Asustek notebook orders due to Acer

Asustek Computer was said to have planned to outsource notebooks to Compal Electronics, but the orders were suddenly turned down by the maker due to Acer, according to sources from notebook makers.

Asustek originally planned to keep 70% of its notebook production with Pegatron Technology and outsource the other 30% to Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) including its mainstream K-series and multimedia N-series models; however, the company now plans to leave 50% with Pegatron and outsource the other 20% to a third partner to save costs, the sources pointed out.

Asustek originally planned to outsource about 10-20% of its notebook production to Compal in the second half of 2010, but due to Acer having privately expressed concerns to Compal about accepting orders from Asustek, Compal has decided to turn down the orders, the sources claimed.

Quanta Computer, Wistron and Inventec, which currently have large volumes of orders from the top-two players, are also claimed to be conservative about accepting orders from Asustek, the sources added.

On the other hand, second-tier makers Flextronics and Qisda have both expressed interest in making notebooks for Asustek. Asustek has so far only outsourced small volumes of niche products to Qisda for testing, the sources noted.