Taiwan's notebook shipments grew only 2.5% sequentially, and dropped 8.6% on year in the third quarter despite the fact that notebook ODMs have seen better-than-expected orders in September thanks to the launch of new products and demand from China's National Day holidays.
Taiwan's proportion of global notebook shipments rose from 84.9% in the second quarter to 86.2% in the third because Samsung Electronics, which has most of its notebooks produced in house, significantly cut its entry-level model shipments and Lenovo failed to raise its in-house production rate as fast as expected.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) had the strongest sequential shipment growth among first-tier vendors at 30% in the third quarter. HP also returned as the largest notebook vendor in the quarter with a market share of 20%, surpassing Lenovo's 18.9% thanks to orders from India's education market. Apple saw 20% sequential growth in the third quarter due to the release of its new MacBook Air and Pro.
Samsung had a sequential shipment drop of over 30%, Asustek Computer around 20% and Acer 15% in the third quarter. Samsung's decline was because the company has turned its business strategy back to profit-oriented, and terminated most entry-level models planned for the second half. Acer and Asustek's drops were because the two have turned their focuses back to entry-level non-touchscreen models seeking to stabilize their performances, Digitimes Research figures showed.
Among notebook ODMs, Inventec had an over 20% sequential shipment growth in the third quarter thanks to HP's strong orders. Impacted by Toshiba and Asustek's decreased orders, Pegatron Technology saw its shipments decline more than 10% sequentially in the third quarter.
This article is an excerpt from a Digitimes Research Quarterly Data Report (Taiwan notebooks – 3Q 2013). Visit our latest Data reports.
This article is an excerpt from a Digitimes Research Special Report (Taiwan notebooks – 3Q 2013). Visit our latest Special reports.