IBM essentially created the personal computer industry. It won’t be long, however, before the company’s nameplate disappears from PCs and IBM leaves the business, except for the joint venture it recently formed with PC maker Lenovo. Founded in 1984 as a distributor in China of equipment made by IBM and other companies, Lenovo will eventually affix its own logo to the PCs. Certainly, Lenovo has come a long way. So has Sanmina-SCI, the actual manufacturer of some IBM PCs in the United States: It recently acquired some of the factories where the computers are made. Like Lenovo, Sanmina assembles products for a variety of well-known brand owners. The company has expanded its role, however, and now also designs and engineers custom electronic components. These two firms are representative of a host of formerly anonymous makers of brand-name products that are stepping up and pushing the brands themselves aside. Indeed, the complexities of IBM’s environment challenge the common view of contract manufacturing as no more or less than the anxious resort of large brand owners suffering from thinning profit margins.

A version of this article appeared in the September 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review.