The downward slide in tablet shipments has moderated during 2016 because Amazon’s and Huawei’s tablets have propped up the overall product sales despite the market headwinds. Global market research firm TrendForce estimates that global tablet shipments for 2016 will total around 154.5 million units, translating to an annual decline of 8.3%. Looking ahead to 2017, branded tablet vendors will adjust their product strategies and generate demand by releasing low-price devices. Hence, global shipments for 2017 are forecast to fall by just 5.3% annually to about 146.4 million units.
Global notebook shipments for 2016 is estimated to decline by 4% compared with the prior year to around 157.9 million units, reports global research firm TrendForce. Notebook sales this year have been constrained by rising prices and supply shortages in the component markets. Global notebook shipments for 2017 are projected to total 150.7 million units, representing an annual decline of 4.5%. Notebook shipments will continue to fall next year as the LCD panel market experiences a structural supply shortage.
Global market research firm TrendForce held its IT Industry Forecast for 2017 on November 10 in Room 101 of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) International Convention Center. Below is a summary of presentations made by our analysts at the event’s morning session:
The latest report from WitsView, a division of TrendForce, finds that the supply of low-end panels for notebooks and tablets has declined as South Korean panel makers scale back production at some of their fabs and focus mainly on products for high-end applications. Global shipments of large-size LCD panels (7 inches and greater) will continue to contract in 2017, registering an annual decline of 2.4% to around 725 million units. On the other hand, the supply area of large-size panels will expand next year on account of strong demand for large monitors and TV sets. WitsView forecasts that global supply area of large-size panels will post an annual increase of 3.8% in 2017.
WitsView, a division of TrendForce, reports global shipments of LCD TV sets in the third quarter of 2016 totaled around 57.15 million units, representing a sequential quarterly increase of 14.4% and a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. TV set shipments benefitted from peak season demand in the U.S. and Europe as well as festivities in China (i.e. the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holidays). China’s vigorous housing market also has a positive effect on the domestic TV sales in the recent period.