Global notebook vendors including HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asustek Computer will be unable to launch new models fitted with Intel's new-generation CPUs in the second half of 2018 as scheduled, as the release of Intel's new offerings will not come soon enough for this year's high season, according to industry sources.

The delay has prompted the brand vendors to adjust downward their notebook shipment goals for 2018 while also weakening the growth momentum at supply chain players, the sources said.

Without the support of Intel's new-generation CPU, notebook vendors will have little to stimulate replacement demand, the sources said.

All they can do, the sources stressed, is to focus more on promoting gaming and business-use notebooks while continuing to lower the costs for consumer models by suspending the incorporation of innovative applications and functions originally designed to go with Intel's new CPU.

As a result, Taiwan's notebook ODMs said that their internal R&D departments now virtually have come to a standstill.

IC designers have also seen clouds cast over their revenue prospects for high seasons in the second half of the year, as the suspension of value-added functional designs will defer the demand for fingerprint recognition chips, touch control pens, and Type-C interface devices, among others.

The designers continued that notebook vendors are taking a conservative marketing approach, and new notebook models rolled out in the second half of 2018 will not bear high price tags. Accordingly, they opined, both ODMs and OEM contractors must work hard to lower the costs of related parts and components.

Now that Intel's new-generation CPU will not be available to support shipments of new notebook models in the second half of 2018, the global notebook shipments for the year are expected to fall further from 2017, with the declining trend likely to carry into the first half of 2019, industry sources indicated.