American laptop brands show strong momentum, with Apple and HP to record double-digit growth in 2017.
Market research firm TrendForce claims that the global notebook shipments for 2017 registered 164.7 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%, higher than previous expectation of 0.7%.
For 2018, the market share of the top six brands is expected to rise to 89.1%, squeezing the room for other brands to develop. On the other hand, Xiaomi and Huawei recorded growth in Chinese market, but the results of their overseas deployment are not clear yet.
HP has demonstrated its ambition since the second quarter and recorded new highs of shipments in 2H17. Its annual shipments hit a new milestone of 40 million units, a substantial increase of 10.5% over 2016. With a market share of 24.3%, HP has retained first place in the shipment ranking.
Lenovo's laptop shipments witnessed a year-on-year drop of 4.9%. It enhanced its sales in Asia and Europe, but still cannot make up the shipment decrease in 1H17. This has an impact on the brand's performance, making its market share down to 20.2%, ranking the second.
Getting contract bids for notebooks of North America government and growth in its Chromebook shipments allowed Dell to increase its annual global shipments by 0.5%. It remained third place in the global ranking with a market share of 15.2%
The updated MacBook Pro in 2Q18 helped Apple expand shipments by 18% for the whole year, the highest growth rate among all the notebook brands. The market share of Apple reached 9.6%, 1.3 percentage points up from 2016, which allowed Apple surpass ASUS and rank fourth.
ASUS has adjusted its product strategy in recent years and shrink the production of models with low profits. Hence, the brand's shipments are influenced and its market share dropped to 9.5%, ranking the fifth.
Acer continues to expand aggressively in the Chromebook market, and its notebook shipments growth in North American market raised its annual shipments by 0.6%. Its market share recorded 8%.