Digitimes Research: Global notebook shipments to enjoy 5% growth in 2Q12

Joanne Chien 16 July 2012

Global notebook shipments, facing overstocked inventory in March and a weakening worldwide economy starting in May, only achieved sequential growth of 5% in the second quarter, while compared to the same period a year ago, the volume dropped 1.8% and reached only slightly above 50 million units, according to Digitimes Research findings.

As for brand vendors, Asustek Computer achieved a sequential shipment growth of 36% in the quarter with Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell and Toshiba all suffering an on-quarter drop of 4-7%, while Acer, benefiting from its netbook shipments and pricing strategy, was able to maintain a similar growth rate as the notebook market average. Lenovo also achieved a growth similar to the industry average as the China market is also seeing weakening demand.

Brand vendors' performance in the second quarter already created a strong threat against HP's ranking as the number one vendor as its shipment gap with Lenovo in the quarter was less 500,000 units, while Asustek's market share of 11.3% helped the company surpass Dell to become the fourth-largest vendor worldwide. Apple and Samsung Electronics at seventh and eighth, respectively, trailed closely behind Toshiba at sixth with a gap of less than 2pp.

As for upstream ODMs, Pegatron Technology, benefiting from increasing orders from Toshiba, Asustek and Acer, had the strongest growth among the competitors, while Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), Wistron and Inventec all saw shipments drop sequentially in the quarter. Foxconn and Inventec's shipment drops were mainly caused by HP's weak performance, while Wistron was affected by Dell's decreasing orders.