The downward slide in tablet shipments has moderated during 2016 because Amazon's and Huawei's tablets have propped up the overall product sales despite the market headwinds.
This is according to the latest report from global market research firm TrendForce, which predicts global tablet shipments for 2016 will total around 154.5 million units, translating to an annual decline of 8.3%.
Looking ahead to 2017, branded tablet vendors will adjust their product strategies and generate demand by releasing low-price devices, says TrendForce.
Hence, global shipments for 2017 are forecast to fall by just 5.3% annually to about 146.4 million units.
According to Anita Wang, TrendForce notebook analyst, most tablet brands will be more conservative in committing their resources during 2017.
"Amazon and Huawei, on the contrary, have ambitions to increase their tablet shipments by many folds. The two brands are expected to expand their offerings in the near future.
"Additionally, Microsoft will be releasing Surface Pro 5 in the first quarter of 2017. Generally speaking, tablet shipments will drop next year but the decline will be fairly limited."
TrendForce says another significant trend in next year's tablet market will be the large increase in device size.
Over 30% of tablets shipped worldwide in 2017 will be in the 10-inch and greater size segment, it notes.
The 10.X-inch segment in particular will see a noticeable expansion in shipment share mainly because the leading brand Apple will also be launching a new 10.5-inch iPad device next year, adds TrendForce.
Notebook shipments
Meanwhile, the research firm says global notebook shipments for 2016 are expected to decline by 4%, compared with the previous year, to around 157.9 million units.
It points out notebook sales this year have been constrained by rising prices and supply shortages in the component markets.
TrendForce predicts global notebook shipments for 2017 will total 150.7 million units, representing an annual decline of 4.5%
It says notebook shipments will continue to fall next year as the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel market experiences a structural supply shortage.
Global notebook shipments have been on a slide for two consecutive years starting in 2015, says Wang.
"The structural supply shortage in the LCD panel market will contribute to further decline in notebook shipments during 2017." Shipments of high definition (HD) resolution (1366 x 768), twisted nematic panels for mainstream-size notebook displays will decrease by 10% between 2016 and 2017, she says.
"Branded notebook vendors will release more new models featuring Full HD (FHD) resolution (1920 x 1080) display," Wang added.
"However, selling more FHD models to offset the lack of supply for HD models may not be a viable strategy. First, FHD LCD panels cost much more than HD counterparts."
Moreover, notebooks that are equipped with 8GB of RAM and a FHD display belong to the high-end premium category, according to Microsoft's current formula for Windows licence fees, says Wang.
"Higher hardware specifications will lead to a significant rise in that notebook's OS licence fee, so branded vendors will have difficulty in promoting notebooks with FHD displays."
TrendForce predicts 28% of the notebooks shipped this year worldwide will have FHD or better displays.
This is a significant increase in shipment share compared with 2015. However, high prices for FHD panels will limit the penetration of FHD notebook displays, it says.
Smartphone production
Also, TrendForce has lowered the projected annual growth rate of smartphone production worldwide for 2016 to 2.5%.
Though shipments from Chinese smartphone brands have been fairly strong, other international brands have suffered significant shipment declines, thus constraining the growth in the overall production, it says.
In 2017 global smartphone production volume is forecast to reach nearly 1.4 billion units, an increase of around 4.5% compared with the previous year.
However, double-digit growth that took place in the past years will not return as the smartphone market faces challenges in terms of developing new and innovative applications for devices.
Next year combined smartphone production volume of Chinese brands will total around 634 million units, representing 45.6% of the annual global production volume, says TrendForce.
Collectively, Chinese brands are expected to register flat growth in annual production next year, it adds. Performances of individual companies, on the other hand, will depend on their overseas expansion efforts, TrendForce concludes.
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