DRAMeXchange: Windows 7 will be the trigger for notebook replacement.

2009/10/14—Windows7 will be launched at end of this month and market expect for the replacement effect will be triggered. According to DRAMeXchange, multi-touch functionality will be emphasized and broadly applied to the application device. Notebook year end hot season peak can be anticipated while replacement effect will be more saturated in 2Q10. 
According to DRAMeXchange, 2010 desktop growth will be located at the range of 2%~3% while notebook will have better outlook with 15%~17% growth rate in terms of YoY basis. The overall supply chain and inventory level remain healthy and strong. However, DRAMeXchange expects the replacement effect will be more saturated in consumer market after 2Q10 since launch time is closed to the year end and mainstream customers will be more conservative toward first-adopting models.
Windows 7 will pull up the demand and market size for “multi-touched” panels and applications. From the supply chain perspective, DRAMeXchange sees this movement will benefit from various Taiwanese vendors and help Windows 7 to be more user-friendly. Touch Panel vendor” YoungFast” in line with IC design firm “ EETI”, “ene technology”,”Faraday”, Genesys”, and ”Pixart Imaging” will be more impressed while PC branding company and PC-ODM vendors such as Acer, Asus, Quanta, Compal and Wistron will also be benefited from the Windows 7 in the future.
Launch of Windows 7 does really mean a lot for PC industry. According to DRAMeXchange, Windows has comparably better performance than Vista in various perspective from less hardware spectrum demanding, superior memory utilization, wise battery power management and user-friendly preview workshop. That is, Microsoft is trying to win the customer back and fixing the unsatisfied user experience in Vista. Therefore, the design concept of Windows 7 could the sign for technology industry- Think from the customer side and Do really care what they need and what they don’t need.
In the commercial market, average replacement cycle for corporate PC is around 4 years. Since 2000, corporate replacement has happened in 2000 and 2004 but the one which should happen in 2008 was postponed due to the global financial crisis. DRAMeXchange expects corporate replacement for Windows 7 will be more stimulated when more application software is developed and hardware and software compatibility issue is calm since corporate PC is demanding more on the stability and compatibility.