ODM for Sony

Does anyone know who designs and manufactures Sony's laptops, specifically the Z?

 

uhhm, sony japan? There is written on my box that my Z is made in Japan, think other VAIOs aren't (China?)...

 

I'm a little confused about this. Sony engineers designed the laptop. There is a youtube video out there showing an interview with the lead designer.

As for the manufacturers, check out recent pages in the Z owner's thread. Funny enough, this question has been asked repeatedly (with some urgency) by a poster in that thread. The responses have been things like "Made in Japan" and "Made in the USA with Foreign Parts." Those seemed to be the dominant answers.

 

Yes some of the OEM's (Sony, Dell. Apple) actually design the product and the ODM's in China manufacture them. Asus & MSI are ODM's and they also make laptops under their own brand and also manufactures for other to rebrand.

HP laptops are available through retail outlets where the retailer can't modify the configuration to sale. If the customer wants a modification the pay extra. HP also has the same models that they sell on their website that are configureable. Examples: DV7-2180US retail version sold atr Newegg and DV7-3345US which memory and harddrives can be changes and sometime even graphics cards.

So answering your question Sony designs it and probably Quanta manufactures it in Taiwan or China.

What is the best notebook/laptop brand? …. Exposed. :Gophn.com – News, Reviews, Tutorials, and Deals

 

I am fairly certain that Sony designs it based on a prototype design from Quanta, adding and removing as needed. I.e. it's much like cars today, which are all based on a handful of different frames, but with different engines, styling and price.
Sony designing computers from scratch just doesn't make sense in this economy.

 

Sony self-design Or are at least involved a lot in the development.
Not supposed to say where I know that from or give you more information.

However, they manufacture/assemble in different countries - a few to mention: Taiwan, China, Japan.

Mine says made in China.

 

Well, Sony came out with this last year about division 1 and divison 2 laptops but really it was nothing new. It's clear though that they don't manufacture all of their laptops and just approve designs for some.

Sony have at least used Quanta in the past anyway.
Quanta Sets New Record for Laptop Shipments
The W netbook and Toshiba NB200 I would have thought were Quanta designs.

The Z is Sony's flagship laptop and it's division 1 anyway.

 

If people recall the news last year, Sony's VAIO division is quite literally going to divide / split. Sony Japan will continue designing high-end models (Z, X series for example), and lower, less-premium / executive models (S, E are examples) will be designed by other companies from other countries.

Since this was to save on costs and to allow Sony to focus heavily on high-end machines, I would assume the non-Japanese designed machines will be outsourced somewhere to China (or maybe even Taiwan).

Might be ASUS as they do produce machines which are slapped with another brand at the end-of-assembly-line stage.

EDIT - Rachel bet me to it by a few seconds...

 

Just one correction - S is designed in Japan and is considered Premium/Business line just like Z Unfortunately BestBuy's exclusive S was not a good example for that - I don't think we have or had such a cheap and basic S in Europe...

 

Vaio Z Designers