Compal Electronics shipped 3.3 million notebooks in November, up from three million units in October, and it expects its December shipments to stay flat sequentially.

Most brand vendors have turned cautious about placing orders, but many of them are still expected to make moves to replenish their inventories in December.

Compal's notebook shipments in the fourth quarter are expected to reach 9.6 million units, down 9.37% sequentially from 10.5 million units in the third. It will meet the company's expectation. Currently, revenues from the notebook business still account for over 70% of Compal's revenues.

As for the first quarter of 2016, Compal is still finding it hard to forecast shipments due to weak order visibility, but expects 2016 notebook shipments to stay flat or drop slightly from 2015. However, tablet shipments will grow over 30% and smartphone shipments will have less than 10% growth. Some market watchers pointed out that the tablet shipment growth is mainly from Apple's iPad mini orders.

Compal expects its notebook shipments to reach 39 million units and smart handheld device 50 million units in 2015. Of the smart handheld devices shipped in 2015, 20 million will be tablets and 30 million smartphones.