Although global notebook shipments in the second half of 2013 will not see a double-digit percentage on-year drop like in the first, they will still suffer a 6-7% decrease during the period, and in terms of a quarterly comparison, global notebook shipments will only see 4.8% growth in the third quarter, showing that supply side promotions only had a limited effect in boosting demand, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures.

Global notebook shipments are expected to suffer an on-year decline of 10.8% in 2013, higher than previously estimated, while Taiwan's shipment drop will reach 15.5% on year mainly because Lenovo has been increasing its in-house notebook production, and the percentage is estimated to reach 30% by the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research figures showed.

Among the top-10 brand vendors, Apple, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard (HP) will enjoy better shipment growths in the second half compared to the first. Apple will mainly benefit from its new MacBook Pro products ready for launch in October, while Lenovo will see increasing contributions from markets outside of China, and HP will benefit by a recovery of enterprise market demand.

Since Apple and HP's notebook orders will turn strong in the second half, their major ODM partner Quanta Computer is expected to benefit the most, while Inventec, the main ODM for HP's enterprise notebooks, will also enjoy some shipment growth.

Source: Digitimes Research, July 2013