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This pretty much answers your question. If you want to control the manufacturing then buy your own facility. Barring that you simply tell them how many widgets you want and when they complete that many widgets they can do whatever they want. When company apl, cpq, xyz, etc. want to sell a widget they many times will just send a spec sheet to Foxconn, Quanta, Jabil, etc. and the manufacturing co. will design the widget to meet those specs. Kinda hard to tell a company the size and scope of Quanta how to do their job. You'd have to be their majority widget customer and even Apple doesn't have that kind of clout.

In fact, Apple's new MacBook Pro marks the first time one of their machines has been assembled in China..

FYI Apple machines are assembled by Taiwanese companies Asustek and Quanta Computing. The hardware is assembled to spec and badged "Apple" as it comes off the shelf. The MacIntels are nearly identical to some offerings from Asus directly (which sell many times more laptops under their brand BTW).

In this way, Apple is as much a "hardware company" as Kentucky Fried Chicken is a poultry farmer.

More here and here.

The PC users that constantly come on here with dell quotes talking about how you can get a "Better" machine for cheaper should be forced to read this book. Maybe then they will understand that price is not the end all be all factor in why someone would want a Mac. I know that the culture is probably the number one reason I own a Mac. I pay the extra price because I am proud of this high quality product.

I am typing these very words on an iBook and actually price WAS an important factor when choosing a portable (somehow all x86 alternatives are either bigger and heavier or stripped down of some important functions like combo-drive... or pricey as hell). I am really happy with my machine but I don't think of it as of a "high quality product". It's just a notebook, dammit. Quoting the Russian astronaut from "Armageddon", "Russian computers, American computers, they are all made in Taiwan". The same relates to notebook computers - "Apple notebooks, Dell notebooks, they are all made by subcontractors in Taiwan". You don't get "higher quality product" when choosing Apple instead of Dell, they are both made by the same company (usually Quanta). My advice: be a member of Mac community. Be a member of Mac user group. Be a member of Mac developers society. But don't be a member of Mac culture, because it's nothing but marketing tool for a corporation like any other.

An example of a company which makes laptops and notebooks for major companies is Quanta Computer in Taiwan. There are dozens of these companies. You even have situations where companies like Maxtor have "manufacturing partners" who do all the actual assembly work on their high end drives.

From this part of the Quanta Site.

The chairman announced openly that we are 7-11, the president is busy at the production line in daytime and comes to the R&D to burn the other end of the candle in the evening. We work day and night and night and day to overcome all odds with Quanta...
The market was still small when Quanta decided to develop portable computers, desktop PC was still the mainstream on the market. Apart from LCD and HDD, which are exclusive parts to portable computers, all other parts are the same to that of the desktop computer. The situation is like putting parts of an Infiniti Q30 into a Nissan Sentra. The difficulties at that time is understandable. However hard it was, Quanta's R&D history was started then.

"Do the best to realize your dreams"

As a conclusion, portable PC R&D is brain-consuming work, and many of our colleagues have had their hair turn gray. However, when we see our dreams come true, no one has any regrets and we just keep trying a new task.

Under the direction and insistence of bosses, Quanta's R&D has been running toward practicability, with some differences from others. Low cost and suitability for mass production have been the highest commands of R&D. With cooperation from world leading manufacturers, Quanta products have earned some credits and praises from world famous computer magazines. It is not only recognition of the R&D work, but also a drive for Quanta's efforts on sales achievements.

If R&D is the locomotive, we have been guiding Quanta through all odds over the last decade. We will never spare any time as long as the R&D work continues.

Here's a businessweek article on Quanta : http://www.quantatw.com/company/quanta/Quanta%20Ed u%20Fundation/enews1.htm

They sound like a contract manufacturer to me. But the founder claims that they're not a contract manufacturer, but a "flexible manufacturer" ... whatever that means.

http://www.quantatw.com/edefault.htm It is so-called 'english' version. In fact, it is all in those ie-rogliphs, but navigation in really in latin1 alphabet, which makes things not-so-nasty.