Smartphone shipments in the China market totaled 149 million units in the second quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 2.7% on quarter and 14.3% on year.
Notebook brand vendors started replenishing their stocks in the second quarter after digesting their inventory in the previous quarter. The replenishment demand boosted their Taiwan-based ODM partners' shipments.
Taiwan's handset brand vendors and ODMs both saw sharp declines in their shipments in the first quarter of 2016. The brand vendors' shipments will improve in the second quarter due to launches of new models, but the ODM shipments will drop further.
Total smartphone shipments by China-based vendors reached 128.6 million units in the first quarter of 2016, down 20.2% on quarter but up 33.3% on year.
The global notebook market continued to slump in the first quarter, with shipments going down. Vendors were less interested in boosting shipment volume than in improving their profitability by focusing more on midrange and high-end models.
Strong demand from the cloud computing market helped Taiwan's server shipments grow 12.5% on year to break 10 million units in 2015, accounting for 90.7% of worldwide shipments and the percentage is expected to grow to 91.1% in 2016. This Digitimes Research Special Report provides server industry supply chain market intelligence from the component stage down through the relationship between top ODMs and their brand vendor partners.
Taiwan's handset ODMs all saw significant decreases in their shipments in the fourth quarter of 2015, as clients reduced orders. Its handset brand vendors saw better results, but the increases in their shipments were hardly enough to offset the ODMs' poor results.
In 2016, China's smartphone panel capacity is expected to increase steadily, with BOE and Tianma expanding 6G capacity and GVO and Truly Optoelectronics increasing their share of handset panel production. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the key trends affecting China's smartphone panel industry including LTPS and AMOLED technology developments, the role of smartphone makers in the supply chain, capacity expansion plans and panel pricing for each market segment.
Looking forward to the first quarter of 2016, with both China-based makers and international brands aggressively spreading out their new products including all low, mid, and high cost models on the market in the fourth quarter of 2015, the market will have to digest some of the accumulated inventory in the first quarter.
