As electric vehicle (EV) penetration rate is expected to exceed 30% in 2025, demand for EV infrastructures is growing rapidly, according to DIGITIMES Research. China, the US and the EU have all picked up pace in building charging stations and other green energy installations.

Apple has become a bellwether in the HPC chip segment by rolling out its high-performance M1 series built using advanced process at its foundry partner, but all other manufacturing segments in the semiconductor industry will also be gaining weight in the HPC era, according to Jim Hsiao, a senior analyst at DIGITIMES Research.

The global top-5 notebook brands, not including Apple, saw their combined shipments slip 2% on month and 10% on year in February due to fewer working hours in the months as a result of the Lunar New Year holidays, weak demand from the consumer and enterprise sectors, and brand vendors' preparation for new notebook models.

Apple's new iPhone SE shipments are expected to reach 30 million units in 2022, about the same as shipped volumes of 25-30 million units of its predecessor in its first year (2020) of release, according to estimation by DIGITIMES Research analysts Sean Lin and Luke Lin.

The global top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments slip over 30% on month and over 10% on year in January 2022 due to a major deceleration in order momentum from the retail channel, as most retailers had already completed replenishing their inventory in December. Weakening demand for enterprise notebooks also played a part in the decline.

Global notebook shipments reached 247 million units in 2021, an increase of more than 20% over 2020. The annual growth rate was slightly less than that of 2020, but there was a net increase in shipments of more than 45 million units for the first time. Compared to the 150-160 million units shipped pre-pandemic, the annual shipment scale of the current market has already risen by nearly 100 million units. Now the market is wondering whether this growth will be sustainable in the future.

Worldwide notebook shipments climbed 23.1% to 247 million units in 2021, after rising over 20% on year in 2020. But shipments are likely to register a slight decrease this year, according to DIGITIMES Research.

Digitimes Research expects the slow season to have a bigger influence on the notebook market in the first quarter of 2022 than seasonal effects had in the first quarter of 2021. Overall notebook shipments are expected to slip 10% sequentially.

Open radio access network (O-RAN) technology was originally developed to provide telecom carriers flexibility and cost efficiency in network deployment, but it has become a weapon used by the US to push telecom carriers worldwide to replace their existing equipment sets made by Chinese vendors, according to Digitimes Research.

The global top-5 notebook brands (not including Apple) saw combined shipments increase 7% on month in November, reaching a new highest monthly record ever, thanks to improvements in component shortages and logistics process, despite continuous weak demand from the education sector.

Taiwan's PC monitor shipments grew 4.6% sequentially but fell 6.5% on year to 23.18 million units in the third quarter of 2021, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments are forecast to increase about 5% sequentially in the fourth quarter, as chip and component shortages improve.

In the second edition of the US-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD), the two sides announced their cooperation on the digital economy and 5G network security. It is hoped that the fourth edition of the US-Taiwan Digital Economy Forum (DEF) will be held under the EPPD in 2022 and deepen cooperation in areas such as 5G network security, open network architecture and the free flow of information. This pledge echoes the infrastructure bill recently passed under the Biden administration at the beginning of November.