China's smartphone AP shipments grew 16.1% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2015 mainly thanks to demand for inventory preparation from some vendors and year-end holidays.

Worldwide notebook shipments enjoyed a slight growth of 0.6% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2015 thanks to stable demand from the year-end holidays in Europe and North America plus brand vendors have been pushing new Windows 10-based entry-level and mid-range notebooks.

This Digitimes Research Special Report explains the dynamics of the global AP market by analyzing key trends in the market including the shift to 4G, the market strategy of the key AP vendors and GPU providers and the role various applications have in influencing demand. Overall, Digitimes Research forecasts that the global application processor market will grow 8.5% in 2016 to reach 1.78 billion shipments.

In 2016, global tablet shipments will drop 4.8%, compared to a decline of 17.9% in 2015. With the exception of Microsoft and Huawei, most brands will see flat growth or a small decline in shipments. Some other key trends that Digitimes Research expects to see in 2016 include a continued drop in demand for 7-inch consumer price-friendly Wi-Fi tablets or tablets with phone features; increased popularity of Microsoft's Surface series and Windows 10; and slight on-year growth for Apple.

Global notebook shipments dropped 9% on year in 2015 and the volume in 2016 is expected to drop further by 2.6% to reach 154 million units. Although Windows 10's new functions will trigger some PC replacement, Chromebook will see a small shipment growth and the Wintel's China supply chain will be able to further reduce entry-level notebooks' costs, the shipments in 2016 will still be impacted by the facts such as Surface-like 2-in-1 devices' penetration into the notebook market and the merger of Japan-based notebook vendors. Worldwide notebook shipments are expected to grow slightly in 2017 but the market decline will resume again in 2018.

In September, Digitimes Research surveyed China's smartphone supply chain. After analyzing the industry as well as relative market data, it found that in the third quarter, there were 59.8 million new 3G/4G users in China, which is higher than the average growth rate for the first half.

The launch of Windows 10 devices and the availability of Intel's Skylake-U processors shored up Taiwan makers' notebook shipments sequentially in the third quarter of 2015. But that cannot hide the fact that the notebook market in general continues to head towards a decline.

According to Digitimes Research, after the low season in first-half 2015, demand for smartphones is expected to grow due to the upcoming shopping seasons in China, Europe and the US in second-half 2015. Due to this factor, many firms began preparing to stock up inventory. In third-quarter 2015, China's smartphone AP demand increased significantly with shipments showing growth of 14.9%.

Asustek was the only Taiwan-based handset brand vendor that saw shipment growth in the thrid quarter of 2015. Its shipments already surpassed those from HTC, the once top Taiwan smartphone brand who is now struggling.

China's Tri-network Integration Policy has eased restrictions on the broadcasting and telecom industries in China and allowed them to offer each other's services. This has brought new competitive challenges to the local video market, especially its Internet video/TV market, which has expanded at a scale and speed surpassing that of other regions in the world. This Digitimes Research Special Report provides insights and analysis into the regulations, and content and service providers in the complicated and explosive China Internet TV market.

China has been solidifying its semiconductor industry policy objectives through the release of the "National IC Industry Development Guidelines" in June 2014 and "Made in China 2025" in June 2015, with one key financial support program being the National IC Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund), which will be used to help finance production capacity in advanced process technologies. This report analyzes how the Big Fund can affect the China and global semiconductor industry moving forward.

Smartphone sales in China no longer show any significant momentum for growth as the fast maturing market now increasingly relies on replacement demand from existing users.