Notebook brands are concerned that the weak demand from the year-end holidays may reduce their downstream channel retailers' willingness to promote the upcoming Huron River platform-based notebooks in 2011 as consumers are likely to turn to wait for the new generation models and would relatively increase retailers' inventory pressure of the previous models, according to sources from notebook brand vendors.

In addition to the blizzard in Europe, the appearance of tablet PCs and e-book readers is also impacting demand for PCs and notebooks as they may not be the priority choice for year-end holiday gift.

As for the upstream notebook makers, Quanta is expected to maintain its lead in 2010 with annual notebook shipments of 51.3-51.5 million units, while Compal will ship 48.4-48.6 million units.