The global top-5 notebook brand vendors saw their combined shipments drop 18% on month in October, while the top-3 notebook ODMs together also saw an on-month shipment drop of 14%.
But one of the top-five vendors, Asustek Computer, actually enjoyed a 30% sequential shipment growth in October following the release of new entry-level models.
Another top-five player, Hewlett-Packard (HP), saw a sharp drop to less than two million units in October after a particularly strong September where educational procurement orders shot up its shipments to 3.5 million units.
HP's significant shipment drop in October took its toll on its ODM partners Inventec and Quanta. However, Quanta managed to see only an about 10% shipment drop in October because of support from orders from Asustek and Apple.
Among Taiwan's ODMs, Pegatron Technology saw the strongest on-month shipments growth in October at over 40% thanks to Asustek's orders.
The market got a sneak peek of Lenovo's Androidbook in October, but as Android-based notebooks' market postion is still unclear, Digitimes Research expects such a device to have difficulties achieving good sales initially.
Dell, which completed its privatization on October 29, is said to be considering strengthening its consumer product lines, according to rumors circulating in the supply chain. Dell reportedly will release more new products, aiming to boost its shipment volume.
Since Dell did not perform well in the consume market in the past, Digitimes Research is skeptical whether such a move by Dell would achieve good results.