Notebook ODMs are expected to see their shipments in the fourth quarter to drop from the third and the volumes may continue to decline in 2016.

Digitimes spoke to a few analysts who think mobile devices especially wearable products could replace notebooks as the main growth driver of ODMs, according to some market watchers.

They think that wearable device shipments are going to grow dramatically. Quanta, the maker of the Apple Watch, is expected to see related orders surging in 2016 and the ODM reportedly has also received orders for Apple's second-generation Apple Watch for the second quarter of 2016.

However as we have said before the Apple Watch sold less than a quarter of what was expected and those who bought them are wondering why they did. The second generation version will, at best only sell about nine million of the beasties.

However Inventec Appliance shipped 50-60 million mobile devices in 2015 but 80 per cent of the volume were smartphones.

Digitimes seems confident that smart devices and the internet of things are a better direction for PC makers just when PC makers like Dell are claiming that two in one PCs are the way forward.

What this shows is there are divisions among manufacturers about how to replace their notebook sales, or if they should be replaced at all.

Betting on the farm on the Internet of Things at the moment seems a little risky when there is still little in the way of actual devices out there that people want. That which is available is still small niche market and Apple fanboys buying things they don't need.