The final quarter of 2016 brought good news to the global notebook industry, as shipments showed an on-year increase for the first time since 2012, according to data from Digitimes Research.

The Taiwan Mobile Device quarterly tracker indicated that fourth quarter 2016 shipments were boosted by strong demand from Europe and North America during the year-end holidays. The release of Apple's new MacBook products, and strong shipments from US-based vendors also contributed to the strong performance.

Taiwan makers shipped more than 33 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016, Digitimes Research noted.

Moreover, due to the bump in demand, the delivery of some vendor orders scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016 had to be deferred to the first of quarter of 2017 due to component shortages. This should help soften the seasonal shipment fall that usually comes in the first quarter.

Shipments from Taiwan will drop more than 10% in the first quarter but the drop will not be as big as it was during the same quarter one year ago.

Demand for Windows 10-based models from the enterprise, and the launch of new Chromebooks and gaming notebooks should also help prevent a sharp decline in overall shipments in the first quarter.

Digitimes Research measures notebook shipments in the supply chain, from Taiwan notebook makers to their vendor partners.