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.
Vendors moved up smartphone AP shipments ahead of China's National Day Golden Week holiday, buoying third-quarter 2017 shipments to come to 172 million units, up 24.3% on quarter, outperforming market expectation.
China-based smartphone makers shipped a total of 179.2 million phones in the third quarter of 2017, down 0.4% on year and up 20.8% on quarter. The top five vendors in terms of shipment volumes were Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, BBK and Lenovo.
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.
Digitimes Research estimates smartphone shipments to the China market in the second quarter of 2017 totaled 94.1 million units, maintaining a similar level to that seen in the first quarter of 2017 but down 11.8% on year.
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.
China's AP shipments in second-quarter 2017 showed a sequential increase of only 4%, reaching 133.4 million units. On a yearly basis, the figure represents a decrease of 8.3% compared to that of second-quarter 2016.
This Digitimes Research Special Report examines the China AMOLED industry, focusing on the expansion capacity of the makers, the current implementation plans of major smartphone vendors in the market and the technological hurdles faced by China's makers.
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.
Total shipments of China-based smartphone makers in first-quarter 2017 were 134.30 million units, representing flat growth compared to first-quarter 2016 and showing an on-quarter drop of 28.8%.
