Notebook ODMs Compal Electronics, Inventec and Wistron have seen their March notebook shipments grow from February as their clients had been pushing their shipments before the first quarter ended.

Compal shipped 3.5 million notebooks in March, up 52.17% from February's 2.3 million units. The company pointed out that the first quarter should be the weakest quarter of 2016.

Compal's notebook business contributed 70% of the company's first-quarter revenues and non-notebook businesses 30%, changing from 2015's 72% from the notebook business and 28% from the non-notebook businesses.

Wistron announced revenues of NT$53.14 billion (US$1.64 billion) for March, up 31.75% on month, but down 5.77% on year with revenues for the first quarter reaching NT$134.7 billion, down 22.63% sequentially and 10.58% on year.

In March, Wistron shipped 1.6 million notebooks, up from February's 1.1 million units; 300,000 LCD TVs, staying flat on month; 1.1 million desktops, up from 800,000 units in February; 190,000 servers, up from 130,000 units in February; and 700,000 LCD monitors, up from 500,000 units in February.

Wistron also expects the first quarter to be the weakest quarter of 2016 and expects all its product lines to see growth or flat performances in the second quarter. As for the notebook, Wistron believes related shipments will grow every month in the second quarter, helping the overall shipments in the quarter to increase 5-10% sequentially.

However, Wistron expects its notebook shipments in 2016 to drop from 2015 because of the market's weak demand.

Some market watchers pointed out that Wistron has become a manufacturer of Apple's upcoming iPhone and the orders will become a major growth driver for Wistron in the second half of 2016. Wistron's server shipments are also expected to enjoy strong growth in 2016.

Inventec expects its PC and server shipments to remain flat sequentially in the second quarter, but its handheld devices and solar products will enjoy a slight growth.