Shipment volume of the Taiwanese notebook PC industry stood at around 36.06 million units in the second quarter of 2014, up 4.7% sequentially and up 0.4% year-on-year, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a Taipei-based research institute. "Shipment growth is mainly upheld by the back-to-school demand. The back-to-school sales of notebook PCs used to be tepid in past few years but apparently not this year," said Jane Yeh, the senior analyst with MIC. In 2014, by increasing more platforms for mid-and-lower end models and by decreasing software license fees, Intel and Microsoft have been working on jumping start sales of consumer notebook PCs to help vendors lower notebook PC prices. Coupled with the selection of cargo shipping to reduce costs of freight transport, the Greater Chinese notebook PC shipment volume rose in June.

Greater China Notebook PC Shipment Volume, 3Q 2012 - 2Q 2015

Source: MIC, September 2014

Shipment value of the Taiwanese notebook PC industry arrived at US$15.99 billion in the second quarter of 2014, down 0.5% sequentially and 3.5% year-on-year. Notebook PC ASP (Average Selling Price) also slipped to US$443 in the second quarter, down from US$466 in the previous quarter. "Despite of the rising prices of core components such as PC panels and DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access Memory), the increasing share of lower-priced notebook PCs also dragged down the notebook PC ASP in the second quarter of 2014," said Yeh. Hence, the industry's shipment value growth was dampened in the same quarter.

Looking ahead to the second half of 2014, the increasing number of lower-priced manufacturers and a slew of models that have waited in the pipeline to be launched in the third quarter of 2014 are expected to drive the global notebook PC shipments further. However, the Taiwanese notebook PC industry is expected to see merely 0.9% sequential growth as Chinese companies have been increasing the share of in-house notebook PC production.

The delayed launch of Intel's new high-end Broadwell processors has affected the development of consumer notebook PCs targeting the high-end market. Thus, it is estimated that the industry's shipment volume will still see a decline in the fourth quarter of 2014 despite the target release of Broadwell-powered notebook PCs at the end of 2014.