Despite these developments, as the corporate spending on hardware is expected to remain at the same level as compared to the previous year, Taiwanese server full system and barebone shipment volume is expected to exceed three million units and reach 3.2 million units in 2008, representing a growth rate of 6.5%. Even though Taiwanese makers landed more orders for non-x86 servers, including IBM Power6, Sun Ultra SPARC, and FSC SPARC 64, one- and two-way x86 servers still remained their main contract production products.
Affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, US consumer spending has been sluggish in 2008, leading to a slowdown in the US manufacturing industry and declines in leading US economic indicators. 