Global server shipments grew only 9.2% sequentially in the second quarter of 2021, weaker than Digitimes Research's estimation of 14% growth made in April, due to shortages of components and ICs

Electric vehicles (EVs) are in rapid development. The EV industry, which has no gas engines and heavily involves technology, is a completely different battlefield compared with the traditional car industry. Threatened by Tesla's smashing success and popularity, the car manufacturing and software developers are all eager to make themselves part of the new mobile industry

Taiwan's shipments of small- to medium-size LCD panels are expected to edge down 1.1% sequentially in the third quarter of 2021 after growing 11.7% in the second quarter, according to Digitimes Research

China-based vendors shipped a total of 160 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of 2021, down 16.4% sequentially and 3.2% on year. But shipments will rebound to a 14% sequential increase in the third quarter, according to Digitimes Research

About 218 million smartphone application processors (APs) were shipped to China-based handset vendors in the second quarter of 2021, up about 3% sequentially, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments are forecast to register another sequential growth of 6.9% in the third quarter

Procurement orders from the education segment reached the peak in the second quarter, while demand for gaming and enterprise notebooks also remained robust, but worldwide notebook shipments still performed weaker-than-expected in the second quarter of 2021, as a result of worsening shortages of panels, graphics cards, ICs, and substrates

Taiwan makers' TV shipments reached 7.16 million units in the second quarter of 2021, up 14.3% sequentially, as related makers had strengthened their component procurement via overbooking

Unisoc will see shipments of its smartphone application processors for use by China-based handset companies climb 152% on year to 68.2 million units in 2021, enabling it to unseat HiSilicon as the third largest smartphone AP supplier, according to Digitimes Research

In terms of the global electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, Taiwan-based ICT makers are relatively competitive in EV components and sub-systems and less competitive in batteries, according to Digitimes Research

Although Europe's four major telecom operators - Vodafone, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefonica - had signed memorandum of understanding on the implementation of O-RAN based networks in Europe in early 2021, Rakuten Mobile's ongoing operating losses have put uncertainty to O-RAN's future

China's top-3 OSAT providers - Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), Tongfu Microelectronics and Huatian Technology - are expected to see their combined revenue surge over 20% on year in 2021, according to Digitimes Research

With software defined vehicles emerging as a new trend for the auto industry, automotive operating systems and software programs will become a new field of competition in the market, prompting related players to step up the development of relevant solutions, according to Digitimes Research