All notebooks are exactly the same, almost

TAIWANESE COMPANIES MAKE most of the world's notebooks. Most any notebook you can buy in the UK will be shipped there by a Taiwanese company, after manufacturing in China.

A recent group test in a UK magazine featured half a dozen notebooks. Four were made by Mitac and were identical barebones systems specified by UK system integrators. Only processors in the box and the badges on the outside were different.

Mitac builds most of its notebooks in China. One massive factory in the south of the country employs around 13,000 we learned at the company's stand, here at Computex. We decided not to ask what their average wage would be.

Alll manufacturers here agree that the notebook market is booming and will continue to do so for the next three years at least. An ECS spokeswoman said it expected 20-25 per cent growth this year in the worldwide market. In contrast, the desktop business would grow by between 3-5 per cent she said.

A Mitac spokesman translated these figures to 36 million units this year, 47 million next and 55 million the year after.

Heavy duty desktop replacements are proving popular right now. In the more mobile sector Intel's marteting bucks are translating into Centrino sales, though the longer battery life is a better selling point right now that its wireless networking ability. Wireless hotspots are too far apart, too unreliable and too expensive we learned. µ