India, Jan. 28 -- TrendForce's latest survey of the notebook industry reveals that global notebook brands have been grappling with sharp increases in memory prices since 2H25. Entering early 2026, they are now also facing a temporary CPU supply shortfall and price hikes. These challenges are compounded by rising costs for PCBs, batteries, and PMICs, which together are expected to drive global notebook shipments down 14.8% QoQ in 1Q26, falling below brands' original expectations.

TrendForce observes that, depending on the system setup, CPUs generally make up about 15-30% of a notebook's total BOM cost. Currently, most entry-level and mainstream notebooks mainly use Intel processors. However, Intel's recent price hikes on lower-end CPUs an...