Notebook Vendors Fail to Reach Shipment Goal

Notebook vendors have had high hopes for their portable computer system lineup, as far as sales are concerned. But it seems that in the end, they have been left with only their high hopes, as they haven't succeeded to achieve their shipments goal. The worldwide top-three notebook vendors are reported to have been left with an overstock of components.

As some of you already know, the notebook market has seen a considerable increase in the number of sold units, in the past few years. This is because the technology has advanced quite rapidly and we now have some portable computer systems that can even rival, in terms of performance, some high-end desktop computer systems. Unfortunately, this trend hasn't continued this year, leaving some of the biggest names in the industry looking for alternative measures to cut manufacturing costs.

According to some sources in the industry, cited by Digitimes, the notebook vendors have decided to drop their panel orders this month to help clear inventory. Apparently Hewlett-Packard (HP) has recently lowered orders from its Taiwan and Korea-based panel partners by 10-20%.

This drop in notebook panel demand is expected to have some consequences, which we will see in July's prices. This low demand is expected to change once the vendors manage to solve some of their inventory problems. The back-to-school season is also expected to increase the demand, which means that the crisis should last until sometime in August.

ASUS is also one of the biggest notebook vendors and it seems to have high hopes for its Eee PC lineup. According to Jerry Shen, the company's CEO, ASUS expects that by the end of the year it will ship five million Eee PCs, which is expected to account for half the size of low-price notebook market.