04-20: Huawei’s latest P10 flagship was recently revealed to have some discrepancies in the flash storages installed on several of the units in China; etc.
Chipsets
Qualcomm announced FY2Q17 earnings – net income attributable to the company fell to USD749M from USD1.16B same time last year. Revenue fell to USD5.02B from USD5.55B. (CN Beta, Reuters, Business Insider, Barron’s, Qualcomm, earnings)
Qualcomm revealed Apple’s contract manufacturers are withholding royalty payments amounted to USD1B as Qualcomm and Apple have similar issues in federal court. (CN Beta, Apple Insider)
Targeting mid-range smartphone market, Samsung launches Exynos 7880 – 8×A53 core, 14nm process, main CPU 1.9GHz, Mali-T830 MP3 GPU, support at highest 1440×2560 display, 21.7MP camera, compatible with eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.0 and LPDDR4 RAM. (Laoyaoba, My Drivers, Samsung)
Mediatek has allegedly reduced most orders for 28nm chipsets (Helio P10/Helio P15 SoC’s) planning to completely end their production in Apr~May 2017. MediaTek has reportedly reached this decision in order to focus on the production of more efficient 16nm chips that can see eye-to-eye with the mid-range Snapdragon chipsets from Qualcomm (SD626 and SD660). (GizChina, TechNews)
According to Digitimes, chip demand for Apple’s upcoming iPhone series will exceed 50M sets per quarter during 2Q17, adding that unit sales of the new iPhone are forecast to reach a total of 220M-230M units. ADI, Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Cypress, NXP, Qualcomm, STMicroelectronics,TI and TSMC are reportedly among Apple’s chip suppliers for the 2017 series of iPhones. (Digitimes, press, GSM Arena, Apple Insider, Sina, DoNews)
Spreatrum marketing director Chai Zhongyu indicates that Tsinghua Unigroup expects to launch its 1st commercialized 5G chipset in 2018, and in 2019 I will launch 2nd chipset, riding the first wave of 5G commercialization. Spreadtrum also gets the ARM royalty to develop CPU. Tsinghua is working with Intel, and expects to enter 7nm process in 2018. (Laoyaoba, Digitimes)
Touch Display
Yi Choong-hoon, CEO of local display research firm UBI Research indicates that Samsung Display’s smaller rivals will be catching up with Samsung in production volume of Gen-6 OLED panels in the coming years. Samsung is likely to turn its eyes to the larger Gen-7 OLED panels for better productivity. The analyst pointed out Samsung’s new A4 production line that will start production as early as in 2Q17 is likely to be equipped to produce the Gen-7 OLED panels. (Android Authority, The Investor, Tencent)
LG’s infotainment business is growing—in 2017 vehicular component business revenues could break KRW4T (USD3.541B), and in 3Q17 / 4Q17 it can reach KRW1T. LG reportedly will collaborate with Volvo, Jaguar for infotainment system, and working with Mercedes-Benz for automotive-used OLED component. (Laoyaoba, Digitimes)
Camera
Apple will be equipped with 3D camera, sensor suppliers are in a “drought”. According to MEMS Consulting, in 2015 3D sensor market size amounted to USD1.06B, with 2016-2022 CAGR is 26.5%. By 2022, it will grow to USD5.46B. (Laoyaoba, 163, 21Jingji, press)
Memory
Huawei’s latest P10 flagship was recently revealed to have some discrepancies in the flash storages installed on several of the units in China – fueling speculations that Huawei used UFS 2.1 storage on some, UF 2.0 on others and even eMMC 5.1 storage on some units. Huawei clarified that its flash memories are supplied by a number of credible suppliers who have a guideline set by the company. (TechNews, 52RD, Laoyaoba, Pocket Now, Gizmo China)
Worldwide semiconductor revenue is forecast to total USD386B in 2017, an increase of 12.3% from 2016, according to Gartner. Favorable market conditions that gained momentum in the second half of 2016, particularly for commodity memory, have accelerated and raised the outlook for the market in 2017 and 2018. However, the memory market is fickle, and additional capacity in both DRAM and NAND flash is expected to result in a correction in 2019. (Gartner, press, Laoyaoba)
SK hynix has reportedly formed a consortium with the Bain Capital to bid for Toshiba’s memory unit. SK hynix is estimated to have suggested JPY2T (USD18.4B) for the deal, while Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. has offered JPY3T. (Android Headlines, Korea Times, Yonhap News, CNFOL, EE Focus)
Leading memory vendors including Samsung, SK Hynix, Toshiba, Micron, Intel are expected to enter mass production for 3D NAND Flash from 2H17. It is expected that in 3Q17 the tight-supply of NAND Flash could be slightly alleviated, and the prices are recovering stable. Entering 3D NAND era, in the memory packaging and testing industry, PowerTech Technology (PTI) would be the most beneficial party. (Laoyaoba, Digitimes)
Smartphones
According to CAIT, in Mar 2017 China domestic mobile shipment has reached 41.871M units, 6.3% decreased on year; and Jan~Mar 2017 shipment has reached 118M units, up 1.7% on year. (CAICT, report, report[en], Laoyaoba)
CCS Insight forecast that 2B mobile phones will be shipped in 2017, a 2% rise from 2016. Global demand is expected to continue at this rate for the next 5 years, resulting in a staggering 10B mobile phones being sold during that period. Smartphones continue to account for most sales, with an expected 1.53B shipped in 2017, up 5.4% from 2016. This figure will rise to 1.90B in 2021, when smartphones will make up 92% of the total mobile phone market. (Laoyaoba, CCS Insight, press)
According to Forbes’ Top 10 Companies Midas List, Alibaba remains the top company driving this year’s list, follows by Facebook and Uber. While the majority of this year’s top companies are leftovers from last year’s top ten, there were two China-based newcomers in DiDi Chuxing and ZTO Express, both of which are focused on tech-enabled transportation. (Forbes, CN Beta, Market Watch)
