November NB shipments grow better than expected

Statistics show that in November, shipments of the world's top five NB (notebook) brands grew 14% month-on-month, better than expected, mainly due to large shipments of HP (Hewlett-Packard) India education market orders, with monthly shipments once again standing above 3 million units.

DIGITIMES Research statistics show that in November, the month-on-month shipment growth of the world's top five brands and top three contract manufacturers reached 14% and 12% respectively, better than expected, mainly due to the increase in shipments of HP's India education market orders, followed by other brand vendors continuing to pull in ultra-low-priced models, or rising procurement demand from commercial customers, adding growth momentum.

On the contract manufacturer side, DIGITIMES Research pointed out that Quanta and Inventec, benefiting from HP order shipments, saw their November NB shipments grow significantly compared with the previous month, with month-on-month growth rates both reaching more than 20%. Wistron also benefited from Lenovo's order volume warming up again, with shipment month-on-month growth exceeding 10%. Although Compal and Pegatron saw no obvious growth in NB shipments, they were still on par with October.

DIGITIMES Research pointed out that because the NB market situation had previously been poor, and with Chromebook pressing in, the Small Screen Touch (SST) program Microsoft launched early this year saw no results, and it began taking new measures in October, coordinating with some brand vendors to push a plan for regular notebooks priced below 299 US dollars without touchscreens, in order to block Chromebook from continuing to grow stronger. The products are expected to be launched successively in March to April 2014, which is expected to have some effect on stimulating the NB market and slowing Chromebook shipment growth.

In addition, DIGITIMES Research pointed out that, apart from Dell, which was already delisted in October, the world's top 5 PC brands successively announced their latest quarterly financial reports in November. Lenovo remained the standout performer, HP continued the profit improvement trend of the previous quarter, Asus saw profit decline, and Acer posted a huge loss of more than NT$10 billion, causing its chairman and global president to step down and face the challenge of rebuilding.