Taiwan's handset shipments decreased 27.8% sequentially, but went up 17.5% on year to arrive at 17.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018. The sequential decline was mainly due to seasonality.
Taiwan makers' notebook shipments in the first quarter of 2018 performed weaker than originally expected, slipping 17.1% sequentially and 7.4% on year to reach only 27.07 million units.
According to Digitimes Research statistics, global tablet shipments hit an all-time low in first-quarter 2018, totaling 33 million units, down 28.2% on quarter and 14.9% on year.
Taiwan's handset shipments grew significantly in 2017 because of strong orders from HMD Global for Nokia-branded devices. HMD's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, benefited most.
Worldwide notebook shipments, not including detachable 2-in-1 devices, were weaker than expected and arrived at only around 41.15 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017, registering their first on-year decline after four consecutive quarters of on-year growths. However, Digitimes Research expects worldwide notebook shipments to return to the on-year growth trend in the first quarter of 2018, fueled by new Chromebooks, the China gaming market, and recovery of enterprise demand.
In 2018, global server shipments will grow 8.5% to reach 13.73 million units. Digitimes Research estimates server shipments worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during the period 2017-2022, with growth mainly driven by large-scale data centers and the China market.
Shipments of Nokia-branded devices to HMD Global continued to buoy Taiwan's handset shipments in the third quarter of 2017. HMD's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, benefited most.
The notebook industry still saw increased demand from the enterprise sector in the third quarter of 2017, but the shipment momentum in the consumer space continued to wane.
The revival of the Nokia brand by HMD Global is benefitting Taiwan's handset manufacturing sector. Orders for Nokia-branded feature phones have become a main growth driver for Taiwan's handset shipments.
Replacement demand from the North America and Europe enterprise sector for Windows 10 notebooks was rising in third-quarter 2017, during which Chromebook shipments also saw impressive growth.
According to surveys and analyses conducted by Digitimes Research, revenues generated from sales of server motherboards, servers, storage systems and related network system equipment by Taiwan-based vendors rose 4.8% on year to reach NT$555.8 billion (US$18.79 billion) in 2016 and the amount is estimated to grow another 5.9% on year in 2017 thanks to strong demand for cloud computing-related applications helping overall server shipments grow.
