Notebook ODMs Compal Electronics and Inventec both saw their March revenues surge more than 30% sequentially as shipments started picking up at the end of the first quarter.

Compal's March revenues rose 35.24% on month but declined 0.95% on year to arrive at NT$78.36 billion (US$2.67 billion), while its first-quarter consolidated revenues were NT$196.1 billion, up 4.63% on year.

Compal shipped 3.6 million PCs in March and expects the volumes for April to slip on month. The company's overall product shipments are estimated to grow 15-20% sequentially in the second quarter. For 2018, Compal expects its PC shipments to grow by a single-digit percentage on year and non-PC shipments over 20%.

Enterprise notebooks are expected to see increased replacement demand in 2018 as Microsoft will stop providing technical support for some versions of Windows, while the consumer segment has seen rather weak results since the year-end holidays of 2017 and are expected to remain feeble throughout 2018.

However, gaming notebooks and Chromebooks are expected to continue growing in shipments in 2018. Some market watchers pointed out that Compal is currently the manufacturer of Dell's Alienware brand notebooks and Acer's gaming notebooks. Compal has assigned a team of 300 people to specifically work on new designs and materials and is currently having stable partnerships with the clients, the market watchers noted.

Inventec has reported consolidated revenues of NT$39.5 billion for March, growing 36.76% on month and 5.19% on year, while combined consolidated revenues for the first three months of 2018 came to NT$104.81 billion, rising 5.07% on year.

Inventec shipped 1.6 million notebooks in March, but also expects an on-month decline in April volumes. For the second quarter, the company estimates its four major product lines - notebooks, servers, smart devices and solar products - to each see a 5% sequential shipment growth.

For 2018, Inventec will invest more resources in the server and smart devices businesses and will focus on maintaining its performance in the notebook business.