Global notebook shipments will continue to grow sequentially in the third quarter despite having registered a 10-year quarterly high of 52 million units in the second quarter on robust WFH (work from home) and online education demand, according to findings of Digitimes Research.

 

Most upstream suppliers and downstream brand vendors shared the view that their third-quarter shipments will pick up further, reversing their earlier pessimism that sales could drop in the quarter as the WFH demand started showing signs of waning in late June.

 

Digitimes Research sees two major reasons behind the changed attitude. Besides inventory replenishment for the consumer market segment showing stronger-than-expected momentum, shipments for Japan's GIGA (Global and Innovation Gateway for All) School Project will peak in the third quarter with at least 3.5 million units.

 

The Japanese government has appropriated a budget of over JPY330 billion (US$3.12 billion) in 2020 to implement the project allowing one notebook for each student at elementary and junior high schools, with total shipments estimated at seven million units, to be shared by HP, Acer, NEC and Fujitsu.

 

Digitimes Research expects over 70% of the GIGA School notebooks will be Chromebooks, which are usually more cost-effective than Windows devices. This is expected to significantly benefit Quanta Computer, who has landed contract production orders for 2.5 million Chromebooks under the project for the third quarter.

 

Strong demand for Chromebooks has led to shortages of components such as 11.6-inch TN panels and power management ICs, which now see at least 10% supply shortfall with quotes picking up

 

Meanwhile, vendors of Chromebooks and Windows notebooks have started to adopt more non-Intel processors for their products as the chipmaker has reduced supply of less-profitable Pentium or Celeron processors for education-use notebooks.