Although notebook brand vendors have finished most of their order placements for 2013, they are currently still releasing some sporadic orders, accounting for 5-8% of their total volumes, to the market with ODMs competing aggressively for these shipments, according to sources from notebook ODMs.

However, the fierce competition between ODMs is expected to end up with a result of seeing gross margin drop, the sources noted.

Since global notebook shipments are only expected to see single-digit percentage growth, at the best, in 2013, to maintain a shipment growth, ODMs have been competing aggressively for orders.

In 2013, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer are both expected to achieve shipment growth of a single-digit percentage, while Dell may see flat shipments or a slight drop on year.

For 2013, Quanta Computer has landed about 45-50% of HP's orders, while Compal Electronics has 70% of Dell's orders and 45% of Lenovo and 27% of Acer. Meanwhile, Wistron has landed 30% of Lenovo's orders, 25% of Dell and 30% of Acer, with Inventec mainly landing its orders from HP for enterprise notebooks.

The sources revealed that these sporadic orders are mainly for models that are set to launch in the second half of 2013.