DIGITIMES has surveyed the global top five notebook brands (excluding Apple) and the three largest notebook ODMs regarding their shipments in January 2025 (excluding detachable models). With the notebook market entering its traditional off-season and most brand vendors having raised their inventory levels for the fourth quarter of 2024 as an early preparation against Trump's tariff on imports from China that was later announced in February 2025, the high channel inventory seriously undermined overall notebook shipments in January, resulting in an approximate on-month decline of 39%.
However, compared to the same month in 2024, there was a growth of about 6%, with overall shipments exceeding the average level for January prior to the pandemic (2015-2018).
Among the top five notebook brands, only Dell showed month-over-month growth in January shipments, primarily due to its earlier deployment in raising manufacturing capacity outside of China, which mitigated the impact of US tariffs more than other brands.
