[gamble]

From what I hear from a friend that worked in laptop development at Dell and HP, most of the actual design is done by the Chinese companies that will eventually manufacture the hardware. American hardware companies have stripped themselves down to the point where they basically just specify and test outsourced designs. It's a system designed to produce commodity hardware at low prices, not innovative products.

[ajross]

That mostly just shifts the frame without answering the core question. Why can't the chinese design a decent laptop?

[gamble]

They're stuck in a local optimum. These companies have to be structured in a certain way to succeed at low margin, high volume commodity hardware sales. It isn't easy to adapt that to higher-end products, and when they try the market is slow to recognize changes in a brand, which discourages them from trying.

[seanmcdirmid]

R&D spending: when you are in a race to the bottom, you can only afford to invest in safe designs, and most of your focus is on efficiency. In contrast, Apple can afford lots of R&D spending.

[chii]

and yet, long term, it's apple that makes the bulk of the profits in this sector, while the rest rat race tothe bottom.

I m not sure if its by design, or these smaller companies just cannot come up with a long term plan...