Shipments of smartphone-use application processors (AP) in the China market are expected to experience a steep drop of 37.8% on year in the second quarter of 2020, as China's handset makers are adjusting their inventory for APs due to weak consumer confidence in the local market and the impact on their shipments to India and other emerging markets in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, according to Digitimes Research.Smartphone AP shipments came to 135 million units in China in the first quarter 2020, decreasing over 30% from a quarter earlier and 12.2% from a year earlier, as Chinese handset brands, particularly Huawei, were adjusting downward their shipments due to the outbreak and weak consumer demand for 5G models lacking killer applications, Digitimes Research has found.Qualcomm was the top vendor with a 41.8% share in China's smartphone AP market in the first quarter, followed by MediaTek with 39.6% and HiSilicon Technologies with 15.2%.Looking ahead, HiSilicon will see its share edge up to 23.4% in the second quarter, bolstered by strong pull-ins from parent company Huawei. Meanwhile, Qualcomm and MediaTek are likely to see their shares drop to 37.4% and 36.2%, respectively, in the quarter, Digitimes Research estimates.Qualcomm and MediaTek are expected to experience double-digit sequential and annual declines in their AP shipments to China in the second quarter, as their major clients including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo all brace for slow sales in the domestic market due to aggressive campaigns from Huawei, while their shipments to India, Africa and other emerging markets will remain constrained due to the virus.Smartphone APs built with 7/8 nm process nodes accounted for 34.9% of China's total mobile AP shipments in the first quarter, surpassing those made with 12nm process to become mainstream technology.

NOR flash demand has been strong demand, helping suppliers buck the seasonal trend in the first quarter. Supplier expect NOR flash shortages in second-half 2020, thanks to strong demand from the 5G, IoT and automotive sectors. In another sector of the memory industry, China's Yangtze Memory is looking to start volume production for its 128-layer NAND flash chips later this year, securing a "meaningful" role in the market. In the foundry sector, TSMC reportedly has obtained major orders for Nvidia's next-generation GPUs.NOR flash supply likely to fall short of demand in 2H20: The global supply of NOR flash chips particularly high-density ones is likely to fall short of demand starting the second half of 2020, according to sources at memory chipmakers who already saw their NOR flash sales outperform seasonal patterns in the first quarter.Yangtze Memory to ramp 128-layer NAND flash output in 2020: China-based Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) will be striving to kick off volume production of 128-layer 3D NAND flash chips later this year, racing to catch up with its bigger rivals, according to industry observers.TSMC obtains major orders for Nvidia next-gen 7nm and 5nm GPU, sources claim: Speculation is circulating that Samsung Electronics' 5nm EUV process has attracted orders from Nvidia for its next-generation graphics processor series, but sources familiar with the matter believe TSMC will remain the major foundry partner of the chip vendor for its 5nm as well as 7nm GPU families.

Worldwide all-in-one (AIO) PC shipments are expected to rise over 30% sequentially in the second quarter, following a 29% sequential decline in the first quarter, according to Digitimes Research.With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting the production of AIO PCs, blocking logistics support and weakening demand from enterprises, global AIO PC shipments reached only 2.14 million units in the first quarter. The top-4 AIO PC brand vendors all had similar sequential shipment declines in the quarter, Digitimes Research figures show.The shipment growth in the second quarter is being driven by the facts that the supply chain has already restored its capacity and orders deferred from the first quarter are ready to be fulfilled.Lenovo saw its AIO PC shipments plunge 35% sequentially in the first quarter as its home market of China was the epicenter of the pandemic in the first quarter. Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Apple also suffered shipment drops of around 27-29% sequentially.Among the top-4 brands, Apple is expected to have the highest sequential growth in AIO PC shipments in the second quarter and the strong performance will help Apple leapfrog HP to become the second largest AIO PC brand worldwide.Benefiting from increases in orders from Apple and HP, Quanta Computer's share of worldwide AIO PC shipments is expected to climb 1.8pp sequentially to over 40%.

Taiwan's shipments of large-size panels in 9-inch and above sizes (excluding Sharp's) are expected to grow 12.9% sequentially in the second quarter 2020 thanks to capacity resumption at backend LCD module lines run by Taiwanese panel makers in China, orders deferred from the previous quarter and a surge in demand for remote work and learning applications, according to Digitimes Research.Taiwan's large-size panel shipments came to 47.69 million units in the first quarter of 2019, decreasing 19.3% sequentially and 12.3% on year, as related makers' LCM production in China were disrupted by coronavirus-induced shortages in labor, raw materials and packaging materials, as well as weakened demand, Digitimes Research figures show.Panel demand for notebook and over 9-inch tablet applications will be the main growth driver for large-size panel shipments in the second quarter, followed by those for monitor applications (including AIO PCs).As many production lines of TV brands or ODMs in Mexico, Brazil and other places have been fully or partly suspended in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Digitimes Research believes that panel demand from the LCD TV segment will lag behind those from the notebook, tablet and monitor sectors in the second quarter.From the supply side, China's BOE Technology, China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) and CED-Panda LCD Technology are expected to ramp up their shipments of IT panels to mitigate the impact resulted from reduced TV panel shipments.In Korea, LG Display will also enhance its presence in the IT panel sector as it is reducing its output of TV panels. Samsung Display is also expected to slow down the pace of its exit from the LCD panel market in order to cope with a surge in demand for IT applications.

Global server shipments in the first quarter of 2020 recorded a sequential decline of 16.9%, steeper than the 9.8% fall that Digitimes Research had estimated in February, as a result of disruptions to the supply chain amid coronavirus-induced lockdowns in many parts of the world.The shipments of the first quarter reached 3.65 million units, according to Digitimes Research's latest server quarterly report.Server shipments are expected to see a 15.8% rebound in the second quarter as orders for servers continue picking up thanks to deferred orders from the first quarter and rising demand for cloud computing services partly driven by remote work and learning needs, Digitimes Research's figures show.The spread of the coronavirus into North America and Europe has destablized local supply of servers, but demand for cloud computing services has been rising. As server supply is expected to gradually return to normal throughout the second quarter, global server shipments are expected to growth both quarterly and yearly in the quarter.

Notebook demand from the government and enterprise sectors has been strong, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, which is nevertheless hindering ocmponents productio in Southeast Asia. As a result, supply of notebooks may become short of demand in May, according to Digitimes Research. The pandemic has also sent millions working and studying at home, shoring up demand for datacenter support. Server order visibility has now extended to second-half 2020.Notebooks in shortages due to Southeast Asia lockdowns, says Digitimes Research: Notebook supply is expected to fall short of demand in May as components production in the Southeast Asia is being hindered by local contigencies against the coronavirus pandemic, according to Digitimes Research.Server order visibility clear in 2H20 on demand from FB, Microsoft: As major cloud services providers including Microsoft and Facebook are keenly expanding construction of datacenters to better serve global users, the server industry has got a significant boost in order visibility for the second half of 2020, but shipments can hardly meet demand from clients due to production and logistics problems, according to industry sources.

Construction of 5G infrastructure in China has not lost much steam despite the coronavirus pandemic. The country's telecom carriers have recently stepped up their 5G equipment procurment, with Huawei and ZTE emerging as big winners of their projects. But it remains to be seen how strong the 5G market segment in China will be this year. Overall smartphone shipments by Chinese vendors - to both the domestic and overseas markets - dropped sharply in first-quarter 2020, with their second-quarter shipments likely to fall further, according to Digitimes Research. In the semiconductor sector, Samsung is bent on challenging TSMC in a race to advance manufacturing processes. Samsung is expected to spend big this year on EUV fab tools.Huawei, ZTE step up pull-ins for 5G base station equipment: China-based telecom equipment providers, mainly Huawei and ZTE, have stepped up their pace of components orders for 5G infrastructure after winning bids for construction of 5G base stations from the country's three telecom operators recently, according to sources from related supply chain makers.Smartphone shipments by Chinese vendors fall in 1Q20, says Digitimes Research: Shipments of smartphones by China's handset makers totaled 108 million units in the first quarter of 2020, declining 26.2% from a year earlier, Digitimes Research has found.Samsung to spend big on EUV fab tools in 2020: Samsung Electronics is gearing up for mass production of 5nm chips later this year to further enhance its FinFET process offerings that leverage extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology.

Global tablet shipments are forecast to climb 45.5% sequentially and 9.9% on year in the second quarter of 2020 thanks to a recovery in the related supply chain's capacity in China and educational tablet orders deferred from the first quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest tablet shipment figures.Shipments in the fist quarter slipped 33.6% on year to reach around 24.7 million units due to the coronavirus outbreak, which crippled the supply chain's upstream production in China. First-tier brands' tablet shipments had a below-average decline of 29.1% on year in the first quarter, while those of white-box models had a bigger drop at 38.2%, Digitimes Research's figures show.Apple remained the largest tablet brand worldwide in the first quarter, followed by Samsung Electronics in second and Huawei in third. Lenovo became the fourth largest brand with increased procurement orders from the education sector and Microsoft was in fifth place. Amazon fell out of the top-5 in the first quarter, but will return to the fourth position in the second quarter with increased orders and will relegate Lenovo and Microsoft to fifth and sixth respectively.Over 75% of global tablet shipments in the first quarter were models with over 10-inch displays, but the shipment share of 7.x-inch tablets is expected to pick up slightly from a quarter ago in the second quarter due to growing shipments of the iPad mini and Amazon's Fire 7.Apple's tablets had a sequential shipment decline slower than those of othe first-tier brands in the first quarter of 2020, which relatively increased the shipment share of tablets using the GF2 touchscreen technology. Among non-Apple tablets, in-cell technology has grown popular with a share of over 20% in the first half of 2020. The share of tablets using the GFF technology has continued to slip.With Apple to significantly increase its tablet orders for the second quarter, the shipment share of GF2-featured tablets is expected to rise further, while Taiwan-based ODMs, which are key manufacturers of iPads, will see their combined shipments grow 60% sequentially in the quarter and command over 50% of worldwide volumes.

Demand has been for notebooks supporting remote work, distant learning and other staty-at-home activities necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. Digitimes Research estimates that global notebook shipments will spike by more than 40% in second-quarter 2020. The handset market may have been hit hard by the virus, but it has not dampened MediaTek's optimisim for 5G phones. The chip vendor has reiterated its forecast that global 5G smartphone shipments will still 170-200 million units in 2020. But it remains to be seen when Apple will launch its 5G iPhone, development of which reportedly has been hindered by virus-imposed bans on its engineers from traveling to China to conduct engineering verification tests for the new device. Tech companies are said to be mulling changes to their deployments by turning Taiwan into their test production hubs.Global notebook shipments to climb over 40% in 2Q20, estimates Digitimes Research: Global notebook shipments are forecast to surge more than 40% sequentially in the second quarter of 2020, thanks to demand arising from remote work, online learning, and other stay-at-home activities amid the coronavirus pandemic as well as deferred orders from the first quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook shipment figures.MediaTek remains upbeat about 5G phone shipments in 2020: MediaTek is still upbeat about 5G in 2020 and its forecast for global 5G smartphone shipments to reach 170-200 million units in the year remains unchanged, according to company CEO Rick Tsai.US tech giants seeking to expand test production in Taiwan: US tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Google reportedly are mulling expanding test production of new products in Taiwan, whose advantages in the IT manufacturing sector have been highlighted by US-China trade war and the coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources.

Demand for notebooks has been fueled by stay-at-home needs during the coronavirus pandemic. Digitimes Research expects panel makers to see sharp increases in shipments for notebook applications in the second quarter 2020, which is likely the peak period of 2020 for notebook panels. But the desktop PC market has been far weaker. The PC DIY market is likely to decline 30% in 2020. For the smartphone market, fingerprint recognition solution supplier Egistec is expanding its presence in China, and has entered the supply chain of Huawei's 5G handsets.Notebook panel shipments to peak in 2Q20: Global shipments of notebook panels are expected to surge 26% sequentially in the second quarter of 2020, driven by demand from the world's top-three notebook brands, Digitimes Research has estimated.DIY PC market likely to shrink 30% in 2020: DIY desktop PC sales have been sluggish so far this year, unlike the notebook market bolstered by the rise of stay-at-home economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the DIY market may shrink by 30% in 2020 if the pandemic lingers, according to sources from motherboard and grahics card makers.EgisTec enters supply chain of Huawei 5G phones: Egis Technology (EgisTec) has made inroads into China's fingerprint sensor market, with its products now finding their way into the supply chain of Huawei's 5G smartphones, according to industry sources.