COVID-19 goes on a global rampage as 2020 unfolds. As part of the efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, health screening stations are set up at entrances to government buildings, medical institutions, and office complexes to check people's temperatures with forehead thermometers or thermal imaging cameras. However, most thermal imaging systems on the market are not intelligent enough and are susceptible to false alarms.

Digitimes Research has lowered its global smartphone shipment forecast for 2020 to 1.15 billion units, down 15.4% from 2019's 1.36 billion because of the impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.

High inventory levels at clients in late 2019 and the coronavirus outbreak early this year combined to send first-quarter 2020 revenues of the world's top-2 silicon wafer suppliers Shin-Etsu Chemical and Sumco, both based in Japan, suffering on-year falls. But unexpected short-term robust demand stoked by the pandemic and long-term agreements with clients are expected to bolster their overall results for first-half of the year, according to Digitimes Research.

Digitimes Research has revised downward its Taiwan foundry output value forecast this year, as end-market demand is likely to disappoint due to the prolonged pandemic.

Shipments of LCD TVs by Taiwan-based makers fell 45.2% sequentially to 4.65 million units in the first quarter of 2020, affected mainly by seasonality and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in China, according to Digitimes Research.

Shipments of smartphone-use application processors (AP) in the China market are expected to experience a steep drop of 37.8% on year in the second quarter of 2020, as China's handset makers are adjusting their inventory for APs due to weak consumer confidence in the local market and the impact on their shipments to India and other emerging markets in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, according to Digitimes Research.

Worldwide all-in-one (AIO) PC shipments are expected to rise over 30% sequentially in the second quarter, following a 29% sequential decline in the first quarter, according to Digitimes Research.

Taiwan's shipments of large-size panels in 9-inch and above sizes (excluding Sharp's) are expected to grow 12.9% sequentially in the second quarter 2020 thanks to capacity resumption at backend LCD module lines run by Taiwanese panel makers in China, orders deferred from the previous quarter and a surge in demand for remote work and learning applications, according to Digitimes Research.

Global server shipments in the first quarter of 2020 recorded a sequential decline of 16.9%, steeper than the 9.8% fall that Digitimes Research had estimated in February, as a result of disruptions to the supply chain amid coronavirus-induced lockdowns in many parts of the world.

Global tablet shipments are forecast to climb 45.5% sequentially and 9.9% on year in the second quarter of 2020 thanks to a recovery in the related supply chain's capacity in China and educational tablet orders deferred from the first quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest tablet shipment figures.