The traditional PC market is taking a big hit from the rise of tablets and other inexpensive mobile devices. Desktop computers are certainly feeling the pinch, but notebooks may be the category most at risk from ultra-portable devices. Notebook shipments worldwide have been dropping for several consecutive quarters, including this past holiday season. The only categories of notebook PC seen growing are inexpensive, ultra-portable devices such as Chromebooks.
Notebook manufacturers have been turning to 2-in-1 solutions, touchscreens, and HD displays to try and add value to their notebook offerings, with limited success so far. Now it seems that those same manufacturers have accepted that the notebook industry may never be the same again.
A DigiTimes report today shows that Samsung has revised its notebook forecast for 2014. The Korean manufacturer now expects to ship seven million notebooks throughout this year. This represents an over 40% drop in notebook shipments from the estimated 12 million units the company shipped during 2013. According to DigiTimes, 2013’s 12 million notebook shipments were already down significantly from the 17 million Samsung expected to ship last year.
In addition to the relatively low shipment numbers, the report’s unnamed “Taiwan-based supply chain makers” believe that Samsung does not have plans to launch any new notebook models in the coming years, with the exception of new Chromebooks in 2015.