Pegatron

Pegatron matters most to people who follow the hardware behind phones, laptops and other consumer electronics. By our assessment, it is strong as an original design and manufacturing company that builds devices and components for big brands, so its work shows up in scale, assembly and supply-chain discipline rather than in a public storefront. The downside is that this is a contractor’s world: the company is exposed to thin margins, customer concentration and the pressure that comes with serving major electronics clients. In practice Pegatron is the kind of name that disappears into the finished product, which is normal for this part of the industry. It sits in the same broad field as Foxconn and Compal, and that tells you what kind of business it is. Pegatron is based in Taiwan.