Top-10 notebook brand vendors worldwide saw their notebook shipments in the first quarter of 2011 drop sequentially with the only exception being Korea-based Samsung Electronics, which still achieved 1% growth on quarter, according to sources from upstream suppliers citing figures from research firm.
The largest notebook vendor Hewlett-Packard (HP) shipped about 8.8 million notebooks in the first quarter with a sequential drop of 20%, while Acer, at the second, shipped 7.09 million units, dropping 13% sequentially; Dell, 5.82 million units, dropping 6%; Toshiba, 4.76 million units, dropping 10% and Lenovo, 4.74 million units, dropping 10%. The vendors' ranking was the same as the previous quarter.
As for number 6-10, Asustek Computer shipped 4.16 million units with a sequential drop of 10%; Samsung shipped 3.11 million units with a sequential growth of 1%; Apple 2.74 million units with a sequential drop of 6%; Sony shipped 1.83 million units with sequential drop of 29% and Fujitsu shipped 713,000 units with sequential drop of 14%.
The significant drop of HP's notebook shipments in the first quarter correspond to the company's previous statements that the market demand for consumer notebooks was lower than expected in the quarter, while Acer's drop in shipments was mainly due to its inventory pileup in the retail channel.
Dell, benefiting by its low consumer notebook proportion business structure, only had a drop of a single-digit percentage in the first quarter, while Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek all had a drop of around 10%, an average performance.
Samsung and Apple were both originally expected to see sequential shipment growth in the first quarter; but due to Apple's MacBook shipments dropping off at the end of the first quarter, the company still achieve sequential drop in the quarter.
As for the second quarter, the sources in the supply chain believe overall notebook shipments will have growth within 5-10% but with Acer expected to see sequential drop due to unresolved inventory issues.
Source: Digitimes
