“As all brands roll out new models, the Q2 NB shipment seeks growth in the slow season and is likely to challenge higher-than-3% rise with the strategic distribution,” says Caroline Chen, Witsview’s Assistant Research Manager.

In terms of market shares by brands, HP remained in the lead in Q1 and saw a QoQ shipment drop narrowing to 9% and a YoY growth rising to 13% with the volumetric shipment in March. On the other hand, Lenovo, staying as the second, lagged behind HP in terms of the shipment in March and showed an eight-percentage-point gap in the Q1 shipment.

Asus, with the accelerating shipment momentum of its hit product T100 in Q1, ranked in third with Dell. Acer’s Q1 shipment, damped by both internal and external factors, declined 15% QoQ and can only pin the hope on new models launched in Q2.

The penetration rate of touch function on NBs in Q1 attained only 12.4% and showed zero growth from Q4 last year. “The market’s anticipation for NB price cuts is higher than the freshness of design, the 2-in-1 design meets the market’s demand but only the low-priced models can sell,” says Chen.

“The NBs priced at US$ 249 subsidized by Microsoft will be launched one after another in Q2, causing severe challenges to touch NBs.”

Figure I: Top 10 Branded Notebook 4Q13 v.s. 1Q14