A growing number of automakers are designing electrical vehicles (EV) with 800V systems to keep up with fast charging demand and alleviate EV owners' driving distance anxiety.

Despite the higher costs of SiC semiconductor components compared to silicon ones, automakers still embrace them for their low power loss, high withstand voltage, heat resistance and high frequency characteristics.

The China-based top-4 smartphone brands - Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Honor - together shipped 509 million phones in 2021, among which 5G ones represented about 50%.

Global smartphone shipments in the second half of 2021 did not see a growth momentum as in the first half and had experienced decline in both quarters of the period amid the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising concerns over a potential inflation.

Digitimes Research saw the supply-demand gaps for notebook panels, IC chips and processors all exceed 10% in the second quarter of 2021, and will see improvement in some components in the third quarter of 2021.

The first-half 2021 shipments are expected to come to 650 million units while whole-year 2021 shipments are estimated to arrive at 1.32 billion units, up 6.4% from the prior year.

Notebook and tablet shipments are both expected to increase from a year ago in 2020 due to demand from stay-at-home activities, while those of smartphones will slip. In 2021, notebook shipments will stay flat on year, but tablet will decline, while smartphone volumes will rise thanks to 5G's commercialization.

The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in labor shortages and shipment disruptions in China's supply chain, but Digitimes Research believes if the epidemic gets under control, China-based top-4 smartphone brands' shipments are expected to drop 19.5% on year in the first quarter of 2020, while smartphone AP shipments to China will fall 11.4% on year during the period.

The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted production and weakened consumer confidence, with all ICT sectors bracing for major declines in shipments. Digitimes Research has conducted analyses on three mobile device sectors, namely notebooks, smartphones and tablets in the wake of the outbreak. The Special Report offers the latest updates about production statuses and shipments outlook for 2020 for each of the three sectors.

Notebooks, smartphones and tablets are expected to see mixed shipment performances in 2019. Notebook shipments will grow mildly while smartphones and tablets will both see shipments drop. In 2020, only smartphone shipments are expected to grow.

Global all-in-one (AIO) PC shipments will continue shrinking in 2019, following 2018's around 2% on-year drop. With issues such as US-China trade tensions and Intel's CPU shortages, and Lenovo and Apple having been cutting their orders, Taiwan makers are also expected to see their related shipments to be impacted.

This Digitimes Research Special Report offers global shipment forecasts for three major mobile device market segments - smartphones, notebooks and tablets - for the year 2019 and beyond.