Global notebook market is booming with HP leading the charge

The global notebook market is on the up, with 164.7 million units shipped in 2017. That is a 2.1 per cent year-on-year increase, massively surpassing all expectations and forecasts in the buildup to TrendForce’s market report.

While HP remains the market leader with more than 24 per cent of the market share, Apple has shown its intent to move upwards in the market. Surpassing ASUS for the first time, Apple captured a 9.6 per cent market share. Book Pro in 2Q18 helped Apple expand shipments by 18 per cent for the whole year, the highest growth rate among all the notebook brands. The market share of Apple reached 9.6 per cent, 1.3 percentage points up from 2016, which allowed Apple surpass ASUS and rank fourth.“The global notebook market has benefited from biddings for notebook contracts in North America and regional economic recovery,” says Kou-Han Tseng.

For 2018, the market share of the top six brands is expected to rise to 89.1 per cent, squeezing the room for other brands to develop. On the other hand, Xiaomi and Huawei recorded growth in Chinese market, but the results of their overseas deployment are not clear yet. HP has demonstrated its ambition since the second quarter and recorded new highs of shipments in 2H17. Its annual shipments hit a new milestone of 40 million units, a substantial increase of 10.5 per cent over 2016. With a market share of 24.3 per cent, HP has retained first place in the shipment ranking.

Things were not so rosy at Lenovo, where shipments saw a year-on-year drop of 4.9 per cent. It enhanced its sales in Asia and Europe, but still cannot make up the shipment decrease in 1H17. This has an impact on the brand’s performance, making its market share down to 20.2 per cent, ranking the second.