Despite seeing growth in third-quarter worldwide PC shipments, the PC supply chain is still conservative about demand from the fourth quarter to the first half of 2016 as most PC demand in the fourth quarter comes from price-cut promotions with the only exception being Apple's Mac-series products, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Currently, inexpensive Windows 7 PCs are the main selling force in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, and Windows 10 has not yet been able to create a PC replacement trend in the market.

The sources pointed out that PC shipment growth in the third quarter was mainly because of brand vendors refilling their channel inventory.

To maintain their shipments, brand vendors have turned to push niche products such as Chromebooks, 2-in-1 devices, gaming PCs, mini PCs and ultrabooks, but as demand for PCs is expected to stay weak, the industry is unlikely to see any major recovery in the first half of 2016.