Global notebook computer shipments are expected to decline about 13 percent year-on-year this year, as rising prices and shortages of key components, including memory chips and central processing units, continue to weigh on consumer purchases in the second half of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
The forecast marks a steeper decline than the 9.4 percent contraction that the Taipei-based market researcher projected in January, TrendForce research vice president Boyce Fan (范博毓) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Major notebook brands have begun raising retail prices in response to higher memory prices, while adjusting product mixes — such as placing greater emphasis on midrange and high-end models, while lowering specifications for entry-level products — to maintain profitability, Fan said.
Photo: EPA
However, demand uncertainty remains high in the second half of the year, with notebook brands and supply chain partners continuing to build inventories and accelerate shipments ahead of further price hikes for key components, he said.
Consumer demand and replacement cycles could further weaken in the second half, he added.
Memory suppliers have reallocated capacity to high-bandwidth memory and server applications, reducing shipments to PC makers and module manufacturers, and price trends across DRAM segments are expected to remain supported by tight supply, TrendForce said.
Conventional DRAM contract prices this quarter are projected to rise 58 percent to 63 percent from last quarter, while NAND Flash contract prices are expected to grow 70 percent to 75 percent sequentially, it said.
Artificial intelligence (AI) PCs could eventually become part of a hybrid computing model alongside cloud-based AI services, but tight memory supply and high prices remain detrimental to their wider adoption in the near term, Fan said.
In addition, the success of AI PCs would depend on whether agentic AI applications can deliver tangible benefits to users and generate sustainable demand, he said.
At the Computex trade show in Taipei last week, Nvidia Corp introduced its RTX Spark superchip for AI PCs and pitched a future where laptops run large AI models and act as personal digital agents.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS