The next major iPhone release will certainly be one of the most anticipated events in the global consumer electronics market in the second half of 2017. TrendForce’s recent findings on the 10th anniversary iPhone release reveal that Apple’s latest refresh of the device series will include three new models, with one of them having significant hardware and design upgrades such as an AMOLED display.
Market research firm TrendForce reports annual tablet shipments worldwide posted a decline for 2016, dropping 6.6% to 157.4 million units. However, total shipments from branded tablet vendors surpassed expectations because of the robust year-end holiday sales.
Global shipments of LCD TV sets for 2016 increased 1.6% annually to reach 219.2 million units, according to WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Shipment growth was attributed to the strong sales in North America’s distribution channels during the busy season, the increasing affordability of large-size TVs and the robust housing market in China. The top five TV brands by shipments in order are Samsung, LG Electronics (LGE), Hisense, TCL and Sony.
The global smartphone production volume for 2016 grew 4.7% annually to reach 1.36 billion units in total, according to market research firm TrendForce. Samsung continued to top the annual global ranking despite the discontinuation of Galaxy Note 7, suffering a marginal decline of 3.3% compared with the 2015 figure. Chinese brands Huawei, OPPO and Vivo respectively occupied the last three spots in the global top five and followed closely behind the second-place Apple.
Global shipments of LCD TV panels for 2016 fell 3.5% from the prior year to around 260.4 million units, according to the latest report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Major panel makers expanded their Gen-8.5 production capacity during 2016 in response to the rising demand for larger TV panels. The increased production in the large-size segments helped consume the overall panel capacity and increased the average size of TV panels by 2.2 inches to 43.6 inches. Shipments of TV panels by area therefore actually increased by 6.5% annually. WitsView expects the average size of TV panels to increase again in 2017.