Global notebook shipments cooled noticeably in February 2026 as the industry ran into a familiar mix of seasonal slowdown and ongoing supply challenges. New shipment tracking for the month shows that combined shipments from the world’s top five notebook brands (excluding Apple) fell by around 5% compared with January. The pullback was even more pronounced versus last year, landing about 9% lower than February 2025. The figures exclude detachable models and also consider production activity among the top three notebook ODMs.
A big part of February’s decline came down to timing. Demand typically softens during February in the global laptop market, but this year the Lunar New Year holidays amplified the effect. With many major notebook manufacturing areas operating with sharply reduced staffing and shorter production schedules, overall capacity dropped significantly, directly limiting how many units could be built and shipped during the month.
At the same time, the supply chain continues to feel pressure from component availability—especially shortages tied to entry-level processors commonly used in mainstream, high-volume laptops. When widely used processors are constrained, brands often have to adjust product mixes, delay builds, or push shipments into later months, all of which can drag down monthly totals even if underlying demand remains stable.
February’s performance also appears weaker than what the industry usually sees in an average February, suggesting the combination of reduced holiday capacity and ongoing processor constraints hit harder than normal this year.
The year-over-year decline has an additional context: February 2025 benefited from earlier-than-usual order pull-ins, as brands and channel partners moved faster to secure inventory amid higher perceived risks related to potential US tariffs on notebook imports. With that earlier demand brought forward last year, comparisons in 2026 naturally look softer.
Taken together, February 2026 reinforces a clear theme for the notebook industry: shipment volumes are being shaped not only by consumer demand cycles, but also by production downtime tied to holiday schedules and persistent bottlenecks in key components for mainstream laptops.
