OEM its full name is Original Equipment Manufacturer. it means that a manufacturer that owns the brand product but do not produces the product by itself. in other words, it pay more attention to develop and design new products by mastered the key technology and control sales channel while it entrusts other manufacturer to produce. after the product has been produced, An OEM will purchase the product and attach its own trade brand.
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name.[ref 1] OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a replacement part made by the manufacturer of the original part.[1] In this usage, OEM means "original equipment from manufacturer".
OEM may refer to a company that purchases for use in its own products a component made by a second company.[2] Under this definition, if Apple purchases optical drives from Toshiba to put in its computers, Apple is the OEM.
Contradictory usage
An even more confusing, contradictory definition is a company that sells the product of a second company under its own brand name.[3]
Alternatives to contradictory or confusing use
Instead of OEM, companies may label themselves resellers.
Companies who buy parts and then resell those parts with some amount of additional value added along the way (such as assembly, customer support, or continued maintenance) may be better termed value-added resellers (VARs) or resellers.
来自维基百科
it is the abbreviation of original equipment manufacturer.