Intel is teaming up with leading Taiwan notebook manufacturers Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics and Asustek Computer to form an initiative to push clone notebook sales in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific markets

The Mobile Alliance (MA) program is set for launch this month, according to sources among members of MA.

Intel has initially invested US$3 million in the project, and the goal of the MA is to ship four million clone notebooks and reach US$2 billion in sales, the sources said.

According to MA members from Taiwan, about 150,000 clone notebooks will be shipped to the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter of this year, with Asustek responsible for mid-to-high-range orders, while price-performance models will be managed by Quanta and Compal.

Under the MA alliance, Intel is expected to release four million CPUs – one million of which will be released in the channel for barebones units, while another three million will go to the notebook makers – to supply the MA shipments this year, the members pointed out.

Synnex Technology International was initially chosen as the distribution partner for Intel’s MA in Asia and the US markets, and Brightpoint has recently been added to handle distribution and logistics for the Europe market, sources familiar with Intel’s MA plan indicated.

Although Brightpoint usually specializes in handset distribution, the sources stated that the initial sales scale of the alliance is limited and a smaller distributor is preferred to leading distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data.

Intel’s Mobile Alliance is targeting an eventual market share of 30-35% in the notebook market and a 60-70% share of the desktop replacement market. However, a December 2005 article cited Taiwan’s first-tier notebook manufacturers as projecting that the combined share of the top-five notebook vendors worldwide will grow to 70.5% of the worldwide market in 2006.