Affected by global economic situation and ongoing tablet cannibalization effect, it is estimated that global PC shipment volume will reach around 306 million units in 2013, down 4.1% year-on-year; meanwhile, due to major setbacks in the European and US markets, the notebook PC industry witnessed a greater shipment decline than the desktop PC industry Driven by strong sales of 7” and low-cost tablets, the global tablet market volume will continue to grow significantly in 2013, breaking the 20 million mark, up 62.2% year-on-year In the first half of 2013, affected by the lukewarm economy, the overall Taiwanese PC industry performed less than expected; in the second half of 2013, despite of a slow economic recovery and the replacement effect trigged by new product rollouts, the Taiwanese PC industry’s shipment in 2013 is in decline compared to 2012, except tablet and server With the rapid growth of tablets and broken boundaries between system architectures and operating systems, the development of mobile computing products has become diverse; competition among products is no longer confined by conventional classifications and competition is, therefore, intensifying Strong sales of low-cost products has led to the rise of Chinese brands; due to the increasing share of Chinese in-house manufacturing, Taiwanese PC vendors’ global share has been eaten up; Chinese branded vendors’ increasing adoption of Chinese PC components is expected to further suppress the development of Taiwanese companies in the upstream PC supply chain