http://www.fudzilla.com/news/noteboo...acing-a-crisis

While most notebook brand vendors expect the notebook industry to grow steadily in 2017 as a result of increases in shipments, at least one ODM vendor is claiming that the proliferation of more feature-rich smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices is still a good reason to consider otherwise.

Lin?s company Wiston is currently the third-largest ODM notebook vendor worldwide and managed to ship 19.4 million units in 2016. Even with a respectable increase in annual shipments and a global increase in on-year industry sales for the first time since 2012, the chairman says dangerous times remain ahead for an industry that has made little major advancement for a long period of time.

While admitting that stagnation is mainly the result of an industry led solely by developments from Microsoft and Intel, he says that notebooks will be replaced by other fast-growing mobile handheld devices as well as ?broadly defined IoT devices?.
?The fact the PC market is shrinking is not a secret. The process will bring about further concentration of brands, and in turn suppliers,? Lin said, adding that related suppliers such as Wistron should begin shifting focus to other form factors such as smartphones and IoT devices.

Global notebook shipments dropped below 150 million units in 2016 and are expected to fall slightly in 2017, according to DigiTimes Research. The three major players ? Lenovo, HP and Dell ? have all maintained their market shares over the past three years, though in the process have acquired share from the other two leading vendors ASUS and Acer.