Global notebook computer vendors are expected to perform weakly in the second half of this year, due to shortages and price hikes for numerous key components, TrendForce says. "Notebook sales usually enter their peak period in the second half of the year, but recent issues regarding components will undercut vendors’ promotion capabilities," TrendForce analyst Anna Wang said in a report.

Wang said some South Korean panel manufactures’ announcements that they would scale back or suspend their production of high-definition twisted nematic LCD panels (HD TN panels) had led to a surge in the prices of HD TN panels recently.

In addition, prices for both DRAM and NAND flash have risen since the beginning of this quarter, which is likely to further burden notebook vendors going forward, Wang said.

The tightening supply of HD TN panels will have the most impact on Acer’s notebook shipments compared with other vendors, Wang said, as Acer’s notebooks featuring HD TN panels account for nearly 90 percent of its total shipments.

Overall, global notebook shipments are to grow by 12.75 percent to 83.64 million units in the second half from 74.18 million in the first half, TrendForce said.

Lenovo was No. 1 in half-year shipment ranking while Apple posted a 30.3% sequential increase in MacBook shipments for second quarter.

Lenovo was able to narrowly surpass HP to clinch first place in the half-year ranking. The Chinese brand shipped 16.15 million units during the first six months of the year on account of tremendous sales results in Americas and Asia Pacific in the second quarter.

HP was No. 2 in the ranking with 15.8 million units shipped for this year’s first half. Despite posting a 17.9% sequential growth in the second quarter, HP was unable to catch up to Lenovo as its first-quarter shipments were too low.

Dell took third place in the ranking with a year-on-year growth rate of 11.1% for its half-year shipments. The market launch of new Chromebook products helped Dell to almost double its Chromebook shipments in the second quarter.

ASUS kept up its quarterly notebook shipments to around 4 million units for the first half of 2016 and has remained as the fourth-largest brand worldwide by shipments. Models with full high-definition (FHD) displays now account for about 30% of the brand’s total notebook shipments.

Apple’s MacBook shipments in the second quarter were up 30.3% versus the first quarter, placing the brand on the fifth spot of the half-year ranking. This shipment surge was generated by the release of an upgraded 12-inch model of the latest MacBook. TrendForce expects MacBook shipments to register sequential growth in the third and fourth quarter because Apple will also be releasing new products for both periods.