DIGITIMES’ survey of May 2026 notebook shipments (excluding detachable models) from the world’s top five notebook brands (excluding Apple) and the top three notebook ODMs found that education tender demand entered its seasonal ramp-up phase during the month. This drove shipments of education-oriented models, including Chromebooks, up nearly 30% and lifted combined shipments from the top five brands by approximately 8% month-over-month. However, shipments by brand vendors were still down about 6% compared with May 2025.
Beyond the seasonal ramp-up of education tender demand, the early start of China’s 618 consumer promotion campaign provided additional support to market demand and helped improve shipments from the previous month. However, continued supply shortages of key components, particularly memory and storage devices, disrupted shipments of selected notebook models and weakened overall growth momentum. Consequently, combined shipments from notebook brand vendors rose only about 8% month-over-month in May 2026, falling short of the average seasonal performance typically observed in May.
Compared with the same period in 2025, shipments were also lower as tariff uncertainty at that time had already driven strong pull-in orders, creating a higher comparison base. In May 2026, demand was further weakened by higher finished-system prices following price increases.
