Apple's MacBook shipments are expected to grow 10% on year to reach 15 million units in 2017 due to new MacBook Pro products. Related supply chain players including Quanta Computer, Shin Zu Shing (SZS), Auras and Wistron are expected to benefit from increased orders, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report citing market watchers.

Although the new MacBook Pros with OLED Touch Bar have a high ASP, demand is still rather strong. MacBook Pros using the Kaby Lake platform are expected to be released sometime later in 2017, and the platform's low power consumption is expected to trigger a replacement trend among existing MacBook users, the market watchers noted.

Apple is likely to reduce the price for the 13-inch MacBook Pro without OLED Touch Bar to increase its overall shipments and will use the device to replace the 13-inch MacBook Air, the market watchers claimed.

Apple is expected to unveil a new 12-inch MacBook in early second quarter with an additional memory option of 16GB. The Kaby Lake-based 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros are expected to begin production in early third quarter. A 15-inch MacBook Pro with 32GB memory will not start mass production until early in the fourth quarter, the paper added.

Source: digitimes