Global tablet shipments reached 38.4 million units in the third quarter of 2022, slightly better than DIGITIMES Research originally anticipated, driven mainly by increased orders from Apple, which saw tablet shipments disrupted by China's COVID-19 lockdowns implemented in cities of the Yangtze Delta, and other brand vendors' keen promotions on tablets.

Shipments of application processors (APs) used in smartphones released by China-based brands went up 10.2% sequentially, but down 19.4% on year to reach 199.5 million units in the third quarter of 2022.

Global server shipments went up 4.3% sequentially in the third quarter of 2022 due to rising demand from public cloud services providers and server brand vendors as well as ODMs' deferred orders from the previous quarter.

Taiwanese notebook makers had shipments weaker than expected in the third quarter of 2022, growing only 2.7% sequentially, far less than the double-digit increase estimated by DIGITIMES Research originally, but still slightly higher than the growth of the global volumes.

Soaring silicon carbide (SiC) demand from electric vehicles (EV) is leading to a tight supply of 6-inch SiC wafers, of which the cost will unlikely go down.

The four leading Taiwan-based foundries - TSMC, UMC, PSMC and VIS - together are on course to generate revenues exceeding US$90 billion in 2022, soaring 31.8% from a year ago.

According to DIGITIMES Research's observations, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, worldwide inflation and interest rate hikes, 2022 global tablet shipments are estimated to further decline 1.5% to come to 139 million units. Looking into the next five years, governments around the world raise interest rates to fight inflation, which however curbs economic growth.

The notebook market is set to face a more than 20% decline in whole-year 2022 shipments with the second-quarter shipments starting to dive as post-pandemic market demand becomes relatively saturated on top of a series of black swan events including rising global inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war as well as aggressive interest rate hikes in mature markets and worse yet, lingering supply chain instabilities.

Digitimes Research forecasts a 5.2% increase in 2023 global server shipments, mainly driven by large US-based cloud service providers actively expanding their datacenter infrastructure. On top of that, the IC and component supply will gradually return to normal with COVID-19 becoming like the flu and Intel as well as AMD producing new-generation CPUs in volume is expected to spur some upgrade demand.

With the increasing usage of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and over-reliance on technologies, drivers are more likely to be distracted while behind the wheel, making the adoption of in-cabin monitoring systems (ICMS) rather critical.

DIGITIMES Research has observed from the developments of the global electric vehicle (EV) and power battery supply chains and found that an EV industry cluster is taking shape in China.

According to DIGITIMES Research's surveys and analyses, second-quarter 2022 smartphone shipments to the China market amounted to 64.2 million units, representing a new low since third-quarter 2020 and an 11.1% on-year decline, amid the already weak market demand on top of lockdown restrictions.