Notebook ODMs expect their shipments to enjoy a sequential growth of 5-10% in the third quarter and have a chance to advance further in the fourth, helping their shipment ratio for the first and second halves of 2014 reach 45:55.

Compal Electronics shipped 4.4 million notebooks in June, up from 3.5 million units in May. Compal estimates its third-quarter shipments will grow 10% sequentially and continue to increase in the fourth quarter. Wistron shipped 1.9 million notebooks in June

ODMs have started gaining confidence about their performance in the second half due to recent order recoveries. They expect July shipments to grow slightly or stay flat, and August shipments to rise. Companies will start building up inventories for the year-end holidays in September.

With tablets gradually losing demand, brand vendors have returned their focuses back to the notebook business. Seeing tablet prices dropping continuously, vendors have already started pulling back their investments and development and the trend will become more obvious in the second half.