VIA forms white box netbook supply chain

VIA Technologies has announced the establishment of Global Mobility Bazaar (GMB), which will function similar as Intel's Common Building Block (CBB) for white box netbook market, according to the company.

The goal of the GMB is to build up a supply chain to let second-tier vendors enter the netbook market – which only has a product cycle around half a year – in a more efficient manner and at a lower cost. The members of the GMB that supply component include Microsoft, IC designer Integrated Technology Express (ITE) and SanDisk, while the organization has one maker in Taiwan and one in China in charge of manufacturing netbooks. VIA will handle the certification and quality control of the products, while the product maintenance will be handled by channel vendors themselves.

GMB is looking to avoid competition with first-tier vendors, and therefore will cut into the market using a low-cost strategy. The initial price will be around 2,499-2,999 RMB (US$365.11-438.15) and is expecting to drop to 1,499-1,999 in 2009. In addition to China, the organization will target markets in Eastern Europe, India and South America.