Feb 15, 2017 10:40 AM EST By Lucy McClaren, UniversityHerald Reporter

Hewlett-Packard or HP is expected to be the top notebook vendor of the year. Last year's top contender Lenovo faced dwindling orders from its main Chinese market because of competition from Huawei and Xiaomi.

In the past, HP was known as the maker of the expensive ink printer, now it has the potential to snag the top spot as HP notebook sales continue to climb. HP is poised to be the top notebook vendor of 2017 dethroning Lenovo which will fill in the number two spot. These are the calculated predictions from Digitimes Research based on available data as to who will emerge as top players in the notebook market.

HP gets the top spot as demand for notebooks in North America was revived in 2016. This renewed interest on notebooks despite the emergence of many hybrid 2-in-1 devices has helped HP to trail closely behind Lenovo. Lenovo is ahead by only a few thousand units.

HP's strong marketing approach with an effective promotion is coupled by a good and comprehensive lineup of products. The company was able to capture a substantial slice of the market and combat the dwindling demand for consumer notebooks. This year will more likely see a demand rebound in the corporate world.

For this reason, HP can enjoy a slight growth in shipment orders for 2017 to surpass Lenovo. HP may have shipments totaling to 36 million notebooks for 2017. A third of the shipments will go to Quanta Computers, which will take 35 percent of the total orders for this year. Wistron and Compal Electronics will each account for 25 percent.

HP's rise is at the expense of Lenovo, which faces stiff competition from Huawei and Xiaomi. Lenovo relies heavily on its Chinese market, which is expected to have orders dropping by more than 2 million shipments for this year. In 2016, the global notebook shipments of Lenovo also dropped below the 150 million units. Shipments for 2017 are also expected to go down.

This is good news for HP following the recalled batteries in June last year and early this year as well. The company was asked to recall 100,000 lithium-ion batteries that are used in HP notebooks. The Consumer Product Safety Commission pointed to possible overheating of the batteries that could result in fire and burns. The devices that were affected were the HP Compaq, HP ProBook, HP Envy, Compaq Presario and the HP Pavilion. These are the devices that were sold from March 2013 to Oct. 2016, according to CNet.

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