Amazon? Apple? RIM? HP? Nope. Assustek of Taiwan

Euromerica has a blind spot for South East Asia. It's difficult, but not that hard to focus on Japan, but the history of South East Asia is either as a market or a workshop. As the economic engines in a global economy keep moving, that's a big mistake. Most globals are still looking at South East Asia as an opportunity to sell more stuff.

They should be looking at it as the real competition for market share in the States and Europe. Sooner or later both offset and digital presses designed and produced in Asia will be the problem for globals in the States. It's going to be better faster cheaper for the user, but with lower and lower margins for the globals. Not a pretty picture.

From today's Financial Times.
Little laptops snap at the oligopoly
What is the most influential piece of personal technology of the past two years? Amazon’s Kindle? Apple’s iPhone? Research in Motion’s BlackBerry? All of these North American devices are worthy but my prize goes to the Asus Eee PC made by Asustek of Taiwan.
. . .
Few analysts grasped the significance of the Eee because they did not think that people in the developed world would buy a not-very-powerful device with a tiny screen and a small keyboard. Meanwhile, US companies from Dell to Microsoft and Apple gazed studiously elsewhere.

Yet, nearly two years on, evidence of the Eee’s influence is everywhere, from the weak outlook reported by Dell this week to Google’s announcement that it will build a rival to Windows in its Chrome OS operating system, and Microsoft’s move to offer a free web version of its Office software suite.

The Asus Eee, and rival netbooks made by Acer, another Taiwan company, have converted consumers and caused havoc in the personal computer industry, reducing revenues and margins at both software and hardware companies. Everyone except Apple has ended up following Asustek.