Shipment volumes of Taiwan's notebook industry stood at around 36.06 million units in the second quarter of 2014, up 4.7% sequentially and 0.4% on year, according to MIC. "Shipment growth was mainly upheld by the back-to-school demand. Back-to-school sales of notebooks was tepid in the past few years but apparently not in 2014," said Jane Yeh, senior analyst with MIC.
Shipment value of the Taiwan notebook industry arrived at US$15.99 billion in the second quarter of 2014, down 0.5% sequentially and 3.5% on year. Notebook PC ASP also slipped to US$443 in the second quarter, down from US$466 in the previous quarter. "With rising prices of core components such as notebook panels and DRAM, the increasing share of lower-priced notebooks dragged down notebook ASPs in the second quarter of 2014," said Yeh. Hence, the industry's shipment value growth was dampened in the quarter.
Looking ahead to the second half of 2014, the increasing number of lower-priced models and a slew of models in the pipeline to be launched in the third quarter of 2014 are expected to drive global notebook shipments further. However, the Taiwan notebook industry is expected to see just 0.9% sequential growth as China-based companies have been increasing in-house notebook production.
