Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell have seen their global PC market shares slipping from 2011 levels and may see continual drops in 2013, according to sources from Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

Meanwhile, the sources pointed out that the rise of notebook players such as Lenovo, Asustek Computer and Apple, are expected to significantly change the PC supply chain's ecosystem since both Asustek and Apple have adopted an outsourcing strategy to retain their product design rights, while Lenovo has been aggressively increasing its in-house production.

The sources believe the initial effect on the PC supply chain will be that Compal Electronics and Wistron, the major partners of Lenovo, will benefit from the China-based vendor's strong shipments, while Quanta Computer and Inventec, which have close relationships with US-based PC vendors, will see their shipments impacted in the future. The impact is also expected to gradually change the ODMs' business strategies.

Since HP, Dell and Acer have all adopted a strategy of outsourcing both notebook production and R&D to upstream ODMs and placed their focuses on product marketing and retail channel operations, their weakening performance has started to change the thoughts of some notebook vendors such as Lenovo.

As for Apple and Asustek which retain their product R&D and only outsource production to ODMs and are seeing improving performance, the sources believe upstream ODMs may be impacted from the ecosystem change.

By: DocMemory
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