According to MIC industry consultant, Charles Chou, the global PC market is estimated to see more manifest decline in 2013 than the desktop PC market. This is mainly due to the slow recovery of global economy, the continued growth of tablets, and a significant fall in demand for personal PCs in the European and US consumer markets. Looking ahead to the second half of 2013, it is estimated that the industry's shipment volume will be fueled by the end-user market demand, which is expected to be driven by the rollouts of new products featuring new OS and product specs in the second half.

Global tablet shipment volume is anticipated to take up over 50% of the total mobile computing products, reaching around 228 million units and a 62.2% year-on-year growth. It is predicted that 7-inch low-cost tablets will have a positive effect on the market acceptance of tablets in the emerging markets and will further push tablet shipment volume upwards. Therefore, the tablet shipment is estimated to still manage to have a 15.2% year-on-year growth in 2015, albeit growth is likely to see the sign of slowing down. The tablet year-on-year growth rate is likely to drop to around 9.6% in 2017. MIC senior consultant Chou indicated that in the short run, with the low-price tendency progressing, the emergence of low-cost tablets really plays a key role in spiking market demand. Nevertheless, the effect of low-cost product strategy on market sales will be weakened in the long run.

Looking ahead to Taiwanese tablet industry in 2013, with several branded Windows 8/RT tablets on the way, Taiwanese tablet shipment volume is estimated to top around 120 million units in 2013, up 24.5% year-on-year. After low-cost tablets witnessed strong sales in the first half of 2013, branded vendors have been aggressively planning to release more low-cost tablets. It is expected that before Apple puts forth its new product in the fourth quarter of 2013, there will be a proliferation of low-cost tablets with screen sizes ranging between 7" to 9" in order to gain more traction. This will help spur the global tablet shipment in the second half of 2013.

According to MIC, affected by lackluster market demand in Europe and the United States and the transition of new platform, the Taiwanese notebook PC industry's shipment performance in the first half of 2013 is estimated to have been less than expected. In the second half of 2013, driven by the favorable factors such as the introduction of new technology and standard, Taiwanese notebook PC shipment volume is estimated to grow. Taiwanese notebook PC shipment volume is estimated to total around 154 million units in 2013, declining 9.9% year-on-year.

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Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry.https://mic.iii.org.tw/english