More Bad News for Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony

Roughly 24 hours ago DigiTimes

that Hewlett-Packard

and Lenovo were expecting notebook shipments to fall 20 percent in the first quarter. Now the Taiwanese publication is

that

Taiwan-based ODMs (original design manufacturers) expect to see decreased notebook shipments during the same period.

Taiwan-based ODMs account for nearly 90 percent of the global market. They expect to ship 38.743 million notebooks in the first quarter. This is an 11.3 percent decrease sequentially and an 8.7 percent decrease on year. The medium-sized (15-inch) notebooks are expected to lead the charge with 39.9 percent of the shipments. The biggest notebooks -- measured at 16 inches or larger -- will only account for 5.5 percent. (This would explain why Apple

discontinued the 17-inch MacBook Pro.) Consumers are also expected to be hungry for notebooks with 14-inch displays, as they will account for 34.6 percent of the shipments. The next size down will only account for 11.1 percent, however, which is interesting considering the popularity of the 13-inch MacBook Air. This suggests that while Mac users are very interested in 13-inch notebooks, Windows users are not. Only 2.7 percent of the shipments will be dedicated 12-inch notebooks, while 6.2 percent of them are expected to be smaller than 12 inches. Despite Hewlett-Packard's recent declines, the PC maker

as the world's largest PC maker. The company had previously lost that title when Lenovo increased its sales late last year. If DigiTimes' shipment estimates are accurate, Hewlett-Packard may be able to maintain its lead. The publication expects the HP Pavilion maker to account for 17.8 percent of the first-quarter shipments. Lenovo will account for 15.4 percent, while Dell

will ship 12.4 percent of the machines. Samsung -- which produces the Chromebook and Chromebox for Google

-- is only expected to ship 1.8 percent of the nearly 39 million notebooks going out this quarter. Sony's

shipment numbers are a bit more respectable at 4.3 percent, but they are only a fraction of Hewlett-Packard's expected shipments. Thus far, Hewlett-Packard has performed very well in 2013, rising more than 14 percent year-to-date. Riding high on rumors that the company

, Dell rose 18 percent this year. Sony, which manufactures a multitude of electronics beyond notebooks and desktop PCs, is down more than two percent year-to-date.