Apple has hired Taiwanese contract manufacturer to produce one million iMacs with built-in 15in LCD screens, the United Daily News, a Chinese language newspaper, has reported.
The contract appears to confirm the claim made earlier this week by Morgan Stanley analysts that Apple is about to launch its long-awaited and much-rumoured next-generation iMac.
The Morgan Stanley report, sent to Apple investors, claimed a contract signed by Apple for LCD machines was a sign that a major revision to the iMac was on the way. It now seems likely that the contract was signed with Quanta.
Certainly the deal the Taiwanese supplier has entered into has been described as the company"s first non-notebook order. Quanta specialises in portable systems and in has in the past produced PowerBooks for Apple. It also makes notebooks for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Compaq, IBM and Gateway. With the iMac order, Apple will become Quanta"s third biggest customer.
According to the UDN story, Quanta will supply one million iMacs at a rate of 100,000 a month. The latter figure matches the one quoted in the Morgan Stanley report. Shipments will begin during the first quarter of next year.