DRAMeXchange says W.W February notebook shipments decline by 21.8% compared to January, due to Asus' outsourcing, February being the year's shortest month and flawed Intel Sandy Bridge chips.
Quanta and Compal report falling behind expectations (with shipments of 3.2m and 2.7m respectively) while Pegatron's February shipments drop by around 50% month over month.
The analyst does predict a 40-50% rebound for March (as compared to February's low numbers)-- but thanks to sandy Bridge delays and decreasing end-user demand, Q1 2011 will see shipment declining by 14% Q-o-Q to reach 44m units.
Notebook shipments should see an increase in Q2 2011, reaching 49.4m (a 12.2% Q-o-Q increase), due to the back-to-school season surge and some Q1 shipments being postponed to April.
However, the channel is reluctant to increase shipments, mostly due to increasing oil and commodity prices.
The recent earthquakes in Japan also have their effect on notebook component production, particularly when it comes semiconductors, panels and battery cells. Japan also makes 5% of the global notebook markets, and thus one expects a delay in the country's notebook replacement cycle.
Finally, DRAMeXchange predicts a total of 215.2m w.W. notebook shipments, with 11% Y-o-Y growth. The analyst also predicts W.W. PC growth for 2011 decreasing from 2010's 8.8% to 7.4% (if one excludes the tablet market).
