Laptop shipments rising in Q4 2016 after 2 years of decline

DigiTimes Research claims sales of laptops are expected to hit 41.65 million units this quarter, a 6.4 percent sequential gain after eight consecutive quarters of volume declines. The agency foresees strong demand from the year-end holidays and expects HP will remain the largest notebook maker this quarter:

Hewlett-Packard (HP) will remain the largest notebook vendor in the fourth quarter, while its shipment gap with Lenovo will continue to widen as the China-based vendor is seriously impacted by high channel inventory and business reorganization, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook report.

Dell has shifted some of its resources to push the consumer notebook sector for the fourth quarter. This will allow the company to achieve growth in the quarter despite the enterprise sector's weakening demand. Apple's new notebook products have seen some negative feedback in design and price, but their major hardware upgrades and new Touch Bar design are still expected to attract many users to replace their old Apple systems. With the shipment growth, Apple is expected to return as the fourth largest vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter.

The combined shipments from HP, Dell and Apple are expected to account for over half of global laptop shipments. Full details at DigiTimes.