After having landed smartphone orders from Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Huawei, BlackBerry and High-Tech Computer (HTC), China-based EMS provider BYD has recently acquired orders for an Acer entry-level smartphone, Hewlett-Packard (HP) tablets and Intel 7-inch educational tablets, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Intel will also outsource its next-generation Bay Trail-based educational tablets to BYD in 2014, the sources noted.
Intel recently released two educational tablets: a 7-inch model featuring Intel Atom Z2420 processor and a 10-inch model featuring Intel Z2460 processor. The 10-inch model was outsourced to Taiwan-based Elitegroup Computer System (ECS), while the 7-inch model was given to BYD, the sources said.
Through the cooperation with BYD, Intel is aiming to land procurement orders from governments and schools in Latin America and Eastern Europe and may also be able to land the same in China.
Intel used to outsource most of its product orders such as Classmate PCs and white-box notebooks, to Taiwan-based makers such as Pegatron Technology, ECS and Quanta Computer. However, as China's supply chain has started rising recently, and is providing lower quotes and more flexibility, Intel has started turning to cooperate with China-based makers.
BYD's tight relationships with China's smartphone vendors, channel retailers, and telecom carriers, and logistic systems in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and Southeast Asia, are expected to significantly help Intel to push its products to those markets, the sources added.
The sources pointed out that Intel internally expects its educational tablet shipments to surpass three million units in 2014 and will target mainly Latin America, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.
