Combined global shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones will continue to grow, driven by a shift to lower-priced devices in nearly all categories, Gartner Inc said in a report.
The market research firm forecast global shipment growth of 7.48 percent to 2.49 billion units next year, based on its estimate of 2.32 billion units shipped this year.
Overall shipments this year should increase 4.5 percent from last year, even as the market for notebook and desktop PCs slides 8.4 percent to 321.7 million units, the report said.
The only bright spot in the notebook and desktop category this year should be the growth in shipments of Ultrabooks, which Gartner said would increase 90 percent from a year earlier to 18.6 million units.
“Although the preference is for dedicated devices, we see the opportunity for hybrid ultrabooks to marry the functionality of a PC and the form factor of the tablet,” Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said.
“Users that have to balance work and play will find that the advantage of buying and carrying one device outweighs the compromise in the full experience that single devices can deliver,” Atwal added.
Global tablet sales for this year are forecast to rise by an annual 53.4 percent to 184 million units, the research firm said.
The increase from 120 million units last year is being driven by lower prices, form factor variety, cloud updates and consumers’ addiction to apps, the report said.
Premium tablets with 7-inch displays will face price declines because of increasing competition in the field, Gartner predicted.
Mobile phone shipments are forecast to grow 3.67 percent worldwide this year, it said.
The mobile phone market will continue to experience steady growth, but the days of high average selling prices are coming to an end, it said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure