MIC Consultant Charles Chou points that, as Microsoft terminated supports for Window XP OS in April 2014, enterprise replacement demand will help uphold the global PC market, and a positive growth is expected as soon as in 2016.

According to MIC, the worldwide desktop PC shipment volume is expected to recover to around 130 million units in 2014, up 3% year on year. The worldwide tablet market, which will see significant slowdown in growth, will see around 275 million units shipped in 2014, up 15.2% year on year, thanks to the growing popularity of low-priced products. Notebook PC market will continue to be eaten away by tablets, falling 5.8% year-on-year in shipment volume to around 162 million units in 2014. Notebook PC as a percentage of overall PC products will dip to 55.4% from last year's 57.6%.

Chou reckons that the notebook PC industry will have a sharper decline compared to the desktop PC industry as the latter is mainly supported by the enterprise market. The tablet market will lose some steam due to low-priced products, limited growth of white-box vendors, and saturated mature markets. With new OS and products hitting the market, it is expected that the worldwide tablet shipments will regain momentum in the second half of the year.

MIC projects that the Taiwanese notebook PC industry's shipment volume will reach around 137 million units in 2014, down 8.2% year on year. Low-priced products and enterprise replacement demand will bolster the industry in the first half of 2014, leading to a better-than-expected overall shipments, says Chou.

Looking ahead, low-priced products will continue to stimulate market demand and therefore push up the industry's shipment volume. With notebook PC branded vendors launching new production capacity in 2014, Taiwanese vendors' global market share will be squeezed. The cooperation and competition between Taiwanese vendors and international brands merits further observation.

In 2014, the Taiwanese tablets will slip 16.2% year on year to arrive at around 95 million units. In anticipation of new products launched by Apple and Amazon, the industry's shipment volume in the second half of 2014 will see a 28.5% growth compared to the first half. Chou believes that, the shrinking price gap between branded vendors' low-priced products and white-box tablets will exert lasting impact on first-tier vendors such as Apple and Amazon. As their major contract manufacturers, Taiwanese vendors will also be affected.

Regarding the Taiwanese desktop PC industry, MIC expects a rosy outlook in 2014 where the industry's shipment volume will stand at 64 million units, up 8.3% year on year, mainly attributed to enterprise demand, new platforms released by Intel and AMD, and Taiwanese vendors' technology advantages in contract manufacturing AIO (All-in-One) PCs and commercial desktop PCs.