As Apple Stumbles...Taiwan Clone Makers Move Forward

Mark Carroll

Sales are rising for Taiwanese Power Mac manufacturers. Umax Data Systems was the first Taiwanese company to produce Power Mac desktops. Alpha Tsay, product director for Umax's Power Mac section, says, "Our sales early this year were about 20,000 units per month. In May, we introduced a midrange pro duct based on the 604e CPU, and we expect sales to reach 30,000 units per month." This represents about 50 percent of Umax's total sales, Tsay adds.

Umax's success with Power Mac clones has not gone unnoticed by other Taiwanese firms. PowerEx Systems, a division of First International Computer, began shipping Power Mac systems earlier this year. Originally, Pow erEx was buying systems from Umax and reselling them under its brand name. But because the company negotiated a license with Apple, it can now produce systems. Neil Hickey, marketing manager for PowerEx, says, "Interest is huge. We've been getting over five distributor inquiries a week since we began offering Mac clones."

Even though Taiwan's Mac clone makers are doing well, Apple still is in the process of reorganizing. Says Tsay: "Obviously, we hope that they are successful in rebuilding. If they go away, so will our clone business."

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Taiwan PowerMac Clone Specs

Taiwan Power Mac Clone Specs
CPU	200--250-MHz PowerPC 604e
Cache	512 KB
Hard drive	2-GB SCSI-2
CD-ROM	8X SCSI
Floppy drive	3-1/2-inch 1.44-MB
Other	Three external drive bays, one extra internal bay, PCI-based multimedia video acceleration, and 10Base-T Ethernet connectors