keyboard

China is expected to replace Japan to lead the global notebook keyboard market in 2003 with a greater than 50％ market share. Full-year notebook keyboard shipments by China-based companies are expected to surpass 21 million units this year, up by 40％ from 15 million last year, sources said. As global notebook shipments in 2003 are estimated at between 36 million and 40 million units, over half of the notebooks worldwide are expected to adopt keyboards manufactured by the island. Last year, China shipped about 15 million notebook keyboards, compared to about 16 million units by Japan, sources said. About 31 million notebooks were shipped in 2002.Although China has ruled worldwide notebook production since it began to seize over half of the market in 2000, Japan has led the global notebook keyboard market because major brands like IBM and some Japanese notebook makers prefer the relatively high quality of their products, according to Chinese keyboard makers. But with significant quality improvement and relatively low prices enabled by production in China, Chinese companies are catching up.