Notebook computer makers cautious about Q1 shipments

They said that since the end of the Christmas shopping season, it will be hard for buying levels seen in the fourth quarter to continue into the first quarter, which will depress demand for the next three months.

Also in reflection of lackluster sales of Windows 8 models, notebook shipments of Taiwan's four major contract makers — Quanta Computer Inc., Compal Electronic Inc., Wistron Corp. and Inventec Corp. — will suffer a month-on-month decline in January shipments of between 8 and 10 percent, the sources said.

They said the decline is expected to continue for the entire first quarter.

Quanta, the world's largest notebook ODM service provider, said the reduced number of working days in the first quarter due to the Feb. 9-17 Lunar New Year holiday is expected to lower production for the quarter.

Quanta said the slow season effect is expected to drag down shipments by no less than 10 percent from the fourth quarter, while consumers might postpone their purchasing plans and wait for models equipped with Intel chips, which could have a further impact on sales.

In fact, Quanta witnessed a 17-percent month-on-month decline in shipments in December despite the Christmas shopping season. The slow season effect is expected to keep affecting the company.

In 2012, Quanta shipments fell 3.58 percent from a year earlier to 53.80 million units, while sales for the year fell 10 percent year-on-year to NT$972.6 billion (US$33.53 billion).

Wistron said that while demand for handheld devices is on the rise on the back of the launch of new models, other products in its product portfolio are encountering a slowdown in demand caused by the ongoing slow season effect.

The company has also anticipated that notebook shipments for the first quarter will fall by at least 10 percent from the previous quarter.

Wistron shipped 31.50 million notebooks in 2012, down slightly from 31.55 million units recorded in 2011.

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