Generative AI has grown to become one of the hottest topics worldwide with cloud services providers all keen on investing in related applications and all industries eagerly trying to implement the innovation into their existing working platforms; however, AI servers may prove to be not such a strong shipment booster this year and next despite the popularity, according to DIGITIMES Research senior analyst Jim Hsiao.

Apple's new M2-power MacBook Air is slated to be unveiled at WWDC scheduled from June 5–9 with DIGITIMES Research's senior analyst Jim Hsiao expecting the notebook's shipments to reach 2.5–3 million units in 2023.

With net zero becoming a global trend, the energy-storage battery industry is expected to enjoy exponential growth in demand in the next several years with global energy-storage battery sales in 2022 already enjoying an on-year surge of 177%, according to DIGITIMES Research's new study of China's battery industry. At the moment, most energy-storage battery suppliers are from China.

Smartphones shipped to the China market shrank to only 62 million units in the first quarter of 2023, down 12.4% sequentially and 7.2% on year, but the volumes in the second quarter are expected to stay at about the same level as in the first, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest figures from the report covering China's smartphone market.

With the Ukraine war, global inflation, and geopolitical tensions, consumer electronics sales plunged, which further caused a decrease in semiconductor sales. Given the weakened demand for chips, DIGITIMES Research projects a 9.2% decline in global foundry industry revenue for 2023.

Due to the rapid advancement in communication technology, the commercialization of 6G is expected to take place by 2030, marking a significant reduction in the innovation cycle.

The methods for humans to interact with and operate robots are gradually being simplified and the keen development of large language models (LLM) is expected to drive up the popularization of the natural language interaction method, which is intuitive and easy to work on, and DIGITIMES Research expects home-use robots to be the first to adopt the method.

As IC packaging trends toward high density and multiple layers, IC substrates that use Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) as an insulation material (also called ABF substrates) are gaining market attention. Japan was once a major IC substrate provider, but Taiwan has overtaken its market share. However, on the foundation of a strong upstream supply chain and its resurging IC industry, Japan's IC substrate suppliers are having a growing influence on the semiconductor sector, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest report covering Japan's IC substrate industry.

Taiwan's PC monitor shipments, as in the previous quarter, continued to slump around 26% from a year ago to below 17 million units in the first quarter of 2023. However, the sequential decline shrank to less than 5% in the quarter and is likely to resume growth in the second quarter, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest figures from Taiwan's monitor shipments.

Despite the milestone of achieving over one billion users worldwide at the end of 2022, 5G's massive commercialization so far is still limited only to a few markets, while many countries' and regions' mobile users have not exhibited a keen intention to upgrade to the new communication standard, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest study of the 5G industry.

The global top-5 notebook brands, not including Apple, saw their combined shipments slip around 30% from a month ago in April because a high comparison base in March hiked by the brands' robust short-term orders, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest notebook shipment figures from the April update report.

Korea-based panel makers Samsung Display and LG Display are working keenly to push their AMOLED panels into automotive applications, eyeing more growth, while China-based makers are also doing the same with the take-off of China's new energy car industry, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest study on the AMOLED panel industry.