Global notebook shipments by top-five brand vendors and top-three ODMs declined 15% on average in October, affected by the roll-outs of new low-priced models in the previous month, according to Digitimes Research.
However, shipments by top brand vendors and ODMs alike continued to grow for a few months in a row prior to October as compared to a year earlier periods, indicating an acceleration of concentration of the notebook industry.
Among major brands, Lenovo, Asustek Computer and Dell posted a sequential shipment decline rate lower than the industry's average, but Hewlett Packard (HP) had a high fluctuation.
Quanta Computer performed better than other ODMs in terms of shipments, as rivals Compal Electronics and Inventec both suffered a sequential decline rate of over 20%.
With regard to HP's plan to split into HP and HP Enterprise, Digitimes Research believes that the separation will not affect the business of the two units significantly in 2015 as the operations of related businesses of the two units have been steady, with revenue and profit still moving upward and no major reshuffles in management.
However, given that the notebook industry has matured, it remains difficult for the new HP,which is responsible PC and printer products, to continue to stay in a growth track.
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