Notebook shipments by the top-five brand vendors and the top-three ODMs increased 14% and 12%, respectively, on month in November, partly driven by shipments of up to three million units in the month to the educational market in India by Hewlett-Packard (HP), according to Digitimes Research.
A pull-in of orders for ultra-low priced models by other brands, and increased purchases from the business sector also contributed to seasonal shipment growth, Digitimes Research added.
Among ODMs, Quanta Computer and Inventec both posted over 20% sequential shipment growths in November thanks to orders from HP, while Wistron saw its shipments grow over 10% during the same period, buoyed by orders from Lenovo.
Compal Electronics and Pegatron also posted significant shipment gains in November although their growth rates were less spectacular than other ODMs.
Due to increasing competition from Chromebooks and Microsoft's failure to stir up demand with the launch of SST (small screen touch) models, Microsoft began in October to push brand vendors to develop sub-US$299 models without using touch-enabled displays. The new low-cost models are expected to hit the market starting March-April 2014.
Lenovo continued to lead other brands with strong earning gains for the third quarter of 2013, while HP also saw its profitability continue to improve during the period. However, Asustek suffered a setback in profits, while Acer posted a loss of over NT$10 billion (US$336.7 million), resulting in a reshuffle of its top executives, Digitimes Research noted.