In 2018, global server shipments will grow 8.5% to reach 13.73 million units. Digitimes Research estimates server shipments worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 6.5% during the period 2017-2022, with growth mainly driven by large-scale data centers and the China market.
Shipments of Nokia-branded devices to HMD Global continued to buoy Taiwan's handset shipments in the third quarter of 2017. HMD's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, benefited most.
The notebook industry still saw increased demand from the enterprise sector in the third quarter of 2017, but the shipment momentum in the consumer space continued to wane.
The revival of the Nokia brand by HMD Global is benefitting Taiwan's handset manufacturing sector. Orders for Nokia-branded feature phones have become a main growth driver for Taiwan's handset shipments.
Replacement demand from the North America and Europe enterprise sector for Windows 10 notebooks was rising in third-quarter 2017, during which Chromebook shipments also saw impressive growth.
According to surveys and analyses conducted by Digitimes Research, revenues generated from sales of server motherboards, servers, storage systems and related network system equipment by Taiwan-based vendors rose 4.8% on year to reach NT$555.8 billion (US$18.79 billion) in 2016 and the amount is estimated to grow another 5.9% on year in 2017 thanks to strong demand for cloud computing-related applications helping overall server shipments grow.
Taiwan's presence in the global handset market continues to shrink. Its share of global shipments is expected to drop below 2% in the first quarter of 2017.
The notebook market has been showing signs of recovery, with Taiwan makers seeing their first on-year shipment growth since first-quarter 2012 in fourth-quarter 2016.
Digitimes Research expects global application processor (AP) shipments to increase more than 8% in 2017 and surpass the 1.9 billion mark, with smartphones remaining the main application. After slumping in 2015, Qualcomm returned to form in 2016 and will continue leading the market in 2017, as other players continue playing catch up and scramble for funds to invest in more diverse applications such as IoT and other smart end-device applications.
Taiwan handset makers had a disappointing third quarter in 2016 as a result of decreased ODM orders and low-than-expected performances of Taiwan's brand vendors.
