Asus Outpaces Dell as World's No.3 NB PC Brand in Q2, 2014

With its notebook PC shipments surging mainly on market recovery, Asus, a Taiwanese brand of PCs, laptops and motherboards, outpaced Dell as the world's No.3 laptop brand by shipment in Q2  of this year, according to the latest report by NPD DisplaySearch, a Japanese market research firm.

NPD DisplaySearch's report shows that total shipments by the world's top-five notebook PC brands, including Lenovo, HP, Asus, Dell and Acer, in the quarter surged 16% year-on-year (YoY), compared to a 20% drop a year ago, indicating recovery of the global laptop market which has been on uptrend for two consecutive quarters after seven quarters of decline.

Hisakazu Torii, NPD DisplaySearch's vice president of smart application research, noted that, mainly due to strong demand for commercial laptop replacements and phaseout of  Windows 8, the laptop market sizes in North America and West Europe showed double-digit growth in the quarter, when Chromebook and budget-priced models enjoyed increasing market penetration.

Under the scenario, Asus advanced to No. 3 in NPD DisplaySearch's top-five laptop brand rankings, while Lenovo and HP remained the world's top-2 brands with market share of 18% and 17%, respectively, followed by Dell and Acer in fourth and fifth with 12% and 11%.

Asus's rise, NPD DisplaySearch indicated, is attributable to banner sales in Europe, China and Asia in the quarter, when its overall shipment increased 19% YoY, compared to 13% rise posted by HP and 3% decline by Acer.

Asus's CEO, Jerry Shen, emphasized earlier that the brand looks to become the world's top-3 brand this year, and the No.1 slot within five years, for which the CEO said the brand will unveil new products in association with Microsoft and Intel at the end of September and early October, respectively. Asus will also launch a new model of its Chi series laptops at the end of the year.

Meanwhile the brand has also seen sales of its Chromebook models improve in the commercial segment of the U.S. laptop market since July, which will likely drive growth of its full-year shipments.

As to the 2014 outlook, Asus optimistically looks to ship 5.1 million laptops in Q3 for an 11% quarterly growth, and finish 2014 with shipment growth of over 20%. (SC)

Global Market Share of World's Top-5 Laptop Brands
Brand	Market Share in 2014 (forecast)	Market Share in 2010
Lenovo	20%	10%
HP	18%	19%
Asus	13%	8%
Dell	12%	11%
Acer	11%	17%

Source: Market research institutes and above brands