According to Digitimes Research's statistics and analyses, as previously forecast, weakening demand, delayed transition to new platforms and high levels of first-half 2018 shipments resulted in a decline in global server shipments in fourth-quarter 2018.
Taiwan-based notebook makers failed to see a boost in demand during the traditional peak season in fourth-quarter 2018, recording weaker-than-expected shipments that dipped 0.1% sequentially and 3.8% on year to arrive at 31.41 million units.
According to Digitimes Research statistics and analyses, Taiwan-based server vendors, including suppliers of motherboards, end systems, storage devices and related network equipment, continue to enjoy growth in 2018. In terms of volume, global server shipments will show continuing growth throughout 2018 and 2019.
Having ramped up their combined smartphone shipments by 6.5% on year to 192 million units in the third quarter of 2018, China-based vendors are likely to see a single-digit shipment decrease in the fourth quarter due to weakening demand in the domestic market and competition resulting from the availability of new iPhone devices, according to Digitimes Research.
According to Digitimes Research statistics, global tablet shipments totaled 44.89 million units in third-quarter 2018, up 21.1% on quarter and 6.1% on year thanks to high season effects.
Taiwan's notebook shipments grew 4.3% sequentially but decreased 4.7% on year in the third quarter of 2018, as Intel's CPU shortages affected vendors' overall order placements.
Having posted a sequential gain of 13.9% in the third quarter of 2018, shipments of smartphone-use application processors in China are expected to decrease 4.6% in the fourth quarter as smartphone vendors have become more conservative on pulling in orders due to lower visibility in demand in the end market, according to Digitimes Research.
According to Digitimes Research statistics and analyses, third-quarter 2018 global server shipments totaled 4 million units (calculated based on motherboard quantity), showing only a moderate quarter-over-quarter growth rather than a large increase as previously anticipated.
This Digitimes Research Special Report offers global shipment forecasts for three major mobile device market segments - smartphones, notebooks and tablets - for the year 2019 and beyond.
Digitimes Research estimates global smartphone shipments will not be able to break through the 1.5 billion unit mark by 2019 as 5G communication has yet to spur a wave of upgrades and the 4G smart feature phone ecosystem has yet to complete.
According to Digitimes Research's study on the trend of server shipments over the next five years, global server shipments will grow better than before.
