Gianfranco Lanci, president and COO of Lenovo recently came to Taiwan to ask PC component makers, especially high-cost ones such as display panels and memory products, to lower prices. However, Taiwan-based makers are mostly reluctant to reduce quotes mainly because prices have dropped to low levels and many components are in tight supply, according to industry sources.

PC brand vendors usually start talking with upstream supply partners about their supply and quotes for the next year at the end of a year. Apple's purchasing executives also visited Taiwan recently to talk with its suppliers.

Since notebook demand from retail channels has been picking up for the year-end holidays due to low inventories and rising acceptance of Windows 10 in the enterprise sector, PC brand vendors have faced increasing pressure from rising component quotes due to shortages. With price competition in the PC market remaining fierce, brand vendors have been eagerly trying to shift some of the cost pressure onto their component suppliers.

However, component shortages have put PC vendors at an inferior position in negotiating prices with component suppliers.