More Than 360 M. PCs, Tablets Shipped in 2011: MIC

Taipei, July 5, 2011 (CENS)--Global shipments of personal computers (PCs) are expected to exceed 320 million units this year, representing a 6.6% increase from 2010, according to the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) at the Institute for Information Industry.

In addition, more than 48 million tablet devices would be delivered this year, up about 198% year-on-year, or YoY, totaling the overall PC/tablet shipments to more than 360 million units.

MIC senior industry analyst Chris Wei pointed out that the overall PC-market performance in 2011 would be better than last year, thanks mainly to the replacement purchases in business market as well as the improving global economic performance.

In recent years, Wei added, the notebook PC market has been enjoying better growth than other product segments, attracting an increasing number of EMS (electronics manufacturing services) providers to intensify the competition. The fierce price competition in notebook PC contract production has also led notebook PC original design manufacturers (ODMs) to upgrade their production ratios of non-notebook PC products, such as IPTVs, cloud-computing equipment, tablet PCs etc., so as to keep margins.

Affected by the overall market environment and makers' strategies, MIC said, the market shares of major brands are expected to rise, while desktop PC vendors will eye emerging markets and the newly rising all-in-one (AIO) PC segment.

The development of cloud computing is driving up demand for servers and has been bringing up server-related business growth. MIC said that when facing the rapidly changing server market, Taiwanese server markers should think how to further upgrade their core manufacturing capability and their ability in hardware/software integration. Local companies are expected to meet the urgent demand from the cloud computing market if they could provide related storage, software, and service solutions to customers, MIC said.