Sony’s PlayStation VR (PS VR) immediately achieved sold-out status following its release on October 13. The event signaled the start of a new round of competition in the global VR device market in the fourth quarter of 2016. “Demand for VR devices will remain quite strong in the next two years,” said Jason Tsai, wearable device analyst for TrendForce. “Conversely, product shipments will not keep pace with the demand. Shortages of key components, particularly OLED panels, will prevent device makers from putting more products on the shelves.”
Samsung’s stunning announcement to stop all sales and exchanges of Galaxy Note 7 is expected to cause noticeable changes in shipments of major smartphone brands, according to the global market research firm TrendForce. In the large-size smartphone market, Samsung’s competitors such as Apple, Huawei, Vivo and OPPO are expected to snatch up the demand that was initially going to Note 7.
Notebook shipments worldwide for 2016 are projected around 156 million units, down 5.1% from 2015, according to the latest report from the global market research firm TrendForce. Chromebook shipments, however, has been expanding against the general trend of decline and are projected to achieve an impressive annual growth of 30~40%, totaling over 10 million units.
Soaring prices during the second half of 2016 and the planned closure of Samsung Display’s L7-1 fab have created anxieties about supply shortages in the LCD panel market, according to the latest analysis by WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Due to these factors, the share of 40- to 49-inch models in the combined LCD TV set shipments from the top 15 branded vendors for 2016 will be smaller than the projection made at the start of the year by 3.8 percentage points. Hence, the mainstream size bracket of LCD TV sets is unlikely to make the transition from the 32-inch to the 40- to 45-inch, or the mid-size segment.
Worldwide notebook shipments for the first half of 2016 fell just 4% year on year to 74.18 million units, according to global research firm TrendForce. Channel inventories returned to a healthy level in the second quarter. At the same time, there was a significant increase in stock-up demand due to arrivals of new notebook products and preparations for back-to-school sales in September. These factors led to an above-expected shipment results.