Shipments of laptop computers in Taiwan last year continued to gain ground on desktop computer shipments as the COVID-19 pandemic stimulated a work-from-home and remote education trend, market research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said in a report yesterday.
A total of 2.44 million personal computers, of which 48.8 percent were laptops, were shipped from Taiwan last year, up 4 percent from a year earlier, IDC data showed.
“The demand for PCs, especially laptops, remained high as a result of COVID-19,” IDC analyst Liu Yi-han (劉伊菡) said in the report. “We predict laptops will overtake desktops by 2021.”
Shipments of commercial laptops would grow by 2 percent this quarter, although the overall PC market would fall by 4.1 percent on an annual basis, IDC said.
For the whole of this year, overall PC shipments from Taiwan are to decline by 2.9 percent year-on-year due to supply chain constraints, it said.
“As the global component shortage continues to affect the PC supply chain, especially laptops, IDC predicts the Taiwanese PC market will go from positive to negative in 2021 and contract by 2.9 percent,” it said.
Shipments of computer monitors last year rose for the fourth consecutive year, up 5 percent year-on-year, IDC said.
However, IDC predicted an overall contraction this year.
“With the rising cost of monitors, most brands will adjust their prices upward this year to maintain profitability,” Liu said. “We predict the Taiwanese monitor market will not be able to sustain last year’s numbers and will contract by 3.3 percent year-on-year.”
A total of 970,000 tablets were shipped from Taiwan last year, a 3.6 percent decline from a year earlier, the report said.
However, commercial tablet shipments rose 106.4 percent to 260,000 units, it said.
The report predicted a further contraction of 9.9 percent to 870,000 units this year for the tablet market.
About 5.46 million smartphones were shipped from Taiwan last year, a 15.3 percent year-on-year contraction, IDC said.
The report said that supply disruption due to the pandemic was to blame for the decline and predicted 6.7 percent year-on-year growth this year.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS