Gaming laptop sales growing at slower-than-expected rate

Even though gaming laptops have been lauded as one of the better performing segments of the mobile computing market, it seems the market is not doing as well as expected. Sources in the upstream supply chain confided to DigiTimes that sales came in at around five million units in 2017, which is lower than anticipated. Last year, market watchers expected gaming laptop sales could reach a figure as high as 5.5 million units.

For consumers, this is good news. The limited growth and the number of new participants in the market should lead to price competition. The site also writes that the market is tougher than many notebook vendors expected. Many notebook brands reportedly asked their ODMs to "copy" the gaming laptop designs from ASUS and MSI, but that strategy did not result in the desired effect.

In Southeast Asia, Europe and Asia Pacific, Asustek and MSI are the top-2 in terms of shipments, while in North America they are in second place with similar shipment volumes. In China, where entry-level models are most popular, the two are in the second and the third places, but are still mainly focusing on the market's mid-range to high-end sector to avoid price competition from local brands Lenovo and Haier.

For the current year, global gaming notebook sales are expected to increase by a single-digit figure.