"This is mainly ascribed to the anticipated launch of new desktop PCs running on Intel's Skylake CPUs at late-August or early-September," says Chris Wei, senior analyst with MIC. "For this reason, several brands have revised up their third-quarter shipment forecasts, thereby driving Taiwan's desktop PC shipments upward in the third quarter."

In the second quarter, traditionally the weak season for desktop PCs, most branded desktop PC shipments were lackluster. On the contrary, some brands - who adopted the inventory clearance strategy prior to new product rollouts in the third quarter - however witnessed shipment growth in the same quarter.

"Fueled by the continuing growth in demand for new products, branded vendors will likely call off the inventory clearance strategy initiated in the second quarter and desktop ASP will likely rise to US$270 in the third quarter, up from US$263 in the previous quarter", says Wei.

"Therefore, the industry's shipment value is expected to witness a 16.4% sequential growth in the third quarter, reaching US$4.2 billion."

Figure 1