TrendForce expects declining global laptop shipments to slow manufacturing exodus from China
- ID
- 34477
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 12 Oct 2026, 8:30 PM
- Fetched
- 12 Oct 2026, 9:25 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/trendforce-expects-declining-global-laptop-shipments-to-slow-manufacturing-exodus-from-china-rising-cpu-dram-and-ssd-costs-will-make-up-68-percent-of-mainstream-notebook-bom
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 4.0
- Created
- 12 Oct 2026, 9:26 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
TrendForce forecasts that falling global laptop shipments will slow the ongoing shift of notebook manufacturing out of China. The same forecast says rising CPU, DRAM, and SSD costs will account for 68% of the bill of materials for a mainstream notebook. The excerpt provided contains only the headline and page navigation, so no shipment volumes, dates, or per-unit cost figures are available.
Why it matters
Component costs reaching 68% of a mainstream notebook's BOM is a procurement signal, not a news item: if you are budgeting dev laptops, GPU workstations, or on-prem hardware for the next few quarters, expect memory and SSD pricing to be the dominant line item rather than the CPU or chassis. The text does not mention Malaysia or any specific Southeast Asian market, so any local manufacturing-impact read would be speculation beyond what is stated.
Discussion angle
If DRAM and SSD are 68% of a notebook BOM, does it still make sense to buy dev machines versus renting cloud instances — and which side of that trade does your team's next hardware refresh land on?