To cope with increasing demand from smartphone vendors, component makers have been shifting their capacity to manufacture smartphone-use products. This has impacted the makers' supply volumes for notebook components, causing quotes to rise. In response, most notebook vendors are planning to hike their retail prices by 5-15% in the second quarter of 2017, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Smartphone vendors having been aggressively pushing their smartphone shipments for 2017, and the sources believe component supply will only grow tighter.

PC vendors have already seen solid state drive (SSD) quotes for March increase 30%. Panel prices, after seeing an 8-9% increase in the fourth quarter of 2016, are currently stable since panel makers still have some inventory, but as stockpiles deplete, panel prices are expected to start rising in the second half.

Because of the impact, notebook shipments' annual shipments are estimated to reach only 140-150 million units in 2017. The rising product prices are expected to cause related vendors to see difficulties achieving further growth.