The worldwide semiconductor shortage will persist through 2021, and is expected to recover to normal levels by the second quarter of 2022. The chip shortage started primarily with devices, such as power management, display devices and microcontrollers, fabricated on legacy nodes at 8-inch foundry fabs, which have a limited supply. The shortage has now extended to other devices, and there are capacity constraints and shortages for substrates, wire bonding, passives, materials, and testing, all of which are parts of the supply chain beyond chip fabs.

5G mobile device models are becoming more diverse and being brought to market more quickly at a wide variety of price points, accelerating affordability and adoption. The mobile market is quickly transitioning to 5G and many leading OEMs are pushing ever-deeper into the lower-priced 5G smartphone segment. The race is on for OEMs to find that all-important level of differentiation to help boost margins and market share.

As remote working and e-learning continues worldwide, demand for Notebook PCs was at its highest ever in Q4 2020, driving 54% year-on-year growth for notebook shipments. The Notebook PC industry picked up pace in the last quarter as consumer demand supplemented sustained work and school-from-home demand.

Worldwide shipments of devices -- PCs, tablets and mobile phones -- are on pace to record 0.9 percent growth to reach 2.28 billion units in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc. The PC and tablet market is estimated to decline 1.2 percent in 2018, while the mobile phone market is on pace to record an increase of 1.4 percent.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2018, an increase of 6.2 percent from 2017, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.