The nation's notebook-computer manufacturers are expected to see a decent growth in shipments in the traditionally slow second quarter, driven by delayed market demand as the shortage of key components is expected to be fully eradicated by the end of the current quarter, the Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center (MIC) said yesterday.
"We expected the shortage of key components like Intel Corp's central processing units (CPUs) and chipsets to see full relief in the second quarter of this year," Helen Chiang (
Intel's low-end Cerelon CPU and 855/852 chipsets started in short supply since the fourth quarter of last year, and the company's 915 chipsets for the advanced Sonoma platform also began to run into shortages in the first quarter of this year, with a shortage gap of between 10 percent to 20 percent, according to the research institute.
The nation's shipments of notebook computers are expected to grow in the current and following quarters, driven by the delayed market demand after the shortage problem is resolved in the second quarter, Chiang said.
Additionally, consumers' increasing demand for wireless communications features, in addition to sliding selling prices in the end-user market and the continuing replacement effect in the desktop-computer sector, are expected to boost market demand in the European and Asia-Pacific regions, which in turn benefits the laptop shipments, she added.
Shipments are expected to grow to 10.18 million units in the April-June quarter, up 7.1 percent from the previous quarter, or up 38.1 percent from a year ago, which translates into a market share of 78.27 percent in the global notebook sector, up from 77.3 percent in the previous quarter or 68.7 percent a year ago, the MIC said.
Boosted by the continuous release of orders from Japanese laptop vendors, like Toshiba Corp, which plans to increase its outsourcing proportion to 70 percent of annual shipments this year, and stronger cost competitiveness than their South Korean rivals, Taiwanese notebook makers are expected to ship 43.3 million units, which represents a global market share of 78.72 percent this year, up from 33.4 million units, or a global market share of 72.30 percent, last year, the MIC said.
Despite growth in shipments, the declining average selling price continued to hurt local manufacturers, Chiang said.
The average selling price has dropped for four straight quarters to nearly US$640 per unit in the first quarter of this year, compared with about US$660 per unit a year ago.
The decline in the average selling price may not be preventable in the wake of strong competition in the sector, and the weakening profitability will continue to worry local notebook assemblers, she said.
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