All-in-one PC shipments may drop a double-digit percentage on-year in 2015 due to weaker-than-expected demand. Shipments in 2016 are unlikely to see any major growth and may stay flat from 2015, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The largest all-in-one PC vendor, Lenovo, is expected to see flat shipment performance and a worldwide market share of around 30% in 2016. Despite the fact that the China government has recently lifted restrictions on opening Internet cafes in the country which has boosted demand for all-in-one PCs, Lenovo will not benefit much from related demand since most Internet cafe players require customization, an area that Lenovo is having difficulties to coordinate, causing the opportunities to be mainly seen by second-tier and China white-box makers, the sources noted.

As for the second-largest, Apple, its iMac shipments are expected to grow 5% on year in 2016. iMac's main manufacturer, Quanta Computer, reportedly has increased its personnel for the product line for 2016, but the ODM declined to comment on market speculation.

In the third quarter, Apple sold about 5.7 million iMacs and MacBooks, up 4% from the same quarter a year ago. For 2015, the sources also expect Apple's iMac shipments to grow about 5% on year.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is the third-largest all-in-one PC vendor worldwide and is expected to also see flat shipment performance in 2015. HP reportedly achieved strong all-in-one PC shipments in India recently, helping its share in India's all-in-one PC market to rise to 30%, the sources noted.

Dell is expected to achieve a 3% growth in all-in-one PC shipments in 2016 and its all-in-one PC partners Compal Electronics and Pegatron Technology are both expected to benefit from the increased shipments, the sources said.

However, compared to Apple, which continues to add new innovations to its iMac products, other all-in-one PC vendors have mainly focused on competing over price which could create a negative impact on their gross margins.