(
Original
Equipment
Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and resells them. However, the reseller is often the designer of the equipment, which is made to order. Many of the largest PC vendors are OEMs, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. Essentially, any PC company that does not have its own manufacturing facilities is an OEM.
Added Value or None
The OEM often does not add anything to the equipment and merely brands it with its own logo. The OEM's name is either placed on the devices by the contract manufacturer that makes the equipment or by the OEM itself. However, OEMs may indeed add value. For example, a "value added reseller" will purchase a computer, add its own software and/or hardware and sell it as a turnkey system. See
VAR and
turnkey system.
There are numerous companies that specialize in OEM manufacturing and never sell anything under their own brand (see
contract manufacturer). Many companies do both. They manufacture and sell retail, but also have a separate OEM division for goods that are private labeled.