Laptop makers foresee strong demand until at least Q1 2017

Sources at Taiwanese supply chain companies told DigiTimes that shiments of laptops from Taiwan-based ODMs will remain strong in Q1 2017. The firms are seeing a strong uptick in demand as brand vendors are increasing orders, which is causing shortages of some components like display panels, memory modules and video cards.

The website writes supply of some key components will fall short of demand by 20 percent, which delayed some shipments to Q1 2017. There's a strong push to replenish inventory of Windows 10 business laptops and orders for Apple's new MacBook Pro are also going strong. The latter is a bit weird given how much negative news we've heard about the new MacBook Pro.

Prices for notebook-use panels are also rising, notably the quotes from Innolux, as the supply of notebook displays has been squeezed by strong demand for panels from TV vendors, the sources noted.

The replacement demand for Windows 10 business models that has begun since the second half of 2016 will continue to gain momentum in 2017, added the sources.