With notebook demand affected by economic uncertainties, power choke shipments have begun to cool off. Taiwan-based power choke makers indicated that after the shipment peak in September and October, orders have slowed in November and further drop is expected for December. A shipment rebound in January of 2011 will depend on clients' procurement in preparation for the China market ahead of Chinese New Year, according to the makers.

Chilisin Electronics, Mag.Layers Scientific-Technics and a Delta Electronics subsidiary are the main Taiwan-based power choke suppliers. Mag.Layers, in particular, has plans to continue capacity expansion from 90 million units a month to 100 million units in 2011.

In addition to power chokes for notebooks and motherboards, the Taiwan-based makers are interested in developing products for other electronic devices including set-top boxes (STB), LCD TV and smartphones, according to industry sources. With some international players exiting the power choke sector, Taiwan's manufacturers are seeing their market share gradually increase.

Smaller power chokes for smartphones are the focus for Taiwan-based makers. Though smartphones use a lesser number of power chokes, due to size requirements, smartphone power chokes are higher in price, the sources said.

Despite lower demand from the notebook sector, orders from smartphones and game consoles should lighten the revenue decline in the fourth quarter, market analysts noted. Mag.Layers, thanks to orders from Apple and a slightly weaker third quarter, should post flat revenue growth in the fourth quarter, the analysts said. Though Chilisin enjoyed a stronger third quarter, breaking into the Xbox 360 and Kinect supply chain should help ease shipment and revenue drop, the analysts added.