According to the latest report by TrendForce, big brands such as Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and Samsung have extended FOD (Fingerprint on Display) technology down from flagship devices to mid-high tier smartphones, enlarging market scale and causing the costs of FOD tech to slide. Penetration rates for optical and ultrasonic FOD solutions are therefore predicted to surpass that of traditional capacitive solutions and become the mainstream technology for smartphone fingerprint recognition in 2022.
TrendForce states that the global 3D sensing market for smartphones has grown from 819 million USD in 2017 to 3.08 billion USD in 2018 as iPhones make a complete switch to structured light 3D sensing solutions. Yet due to smartphone suppliers mostly focusing on fingerprint on display (FOD), the global smartphone 3D sensing market is expected to grow by 26.3%, to a scale of 3.89 billion USD. Apple, anticipated to take up TOF technology in 2020, may boost market development and bring YoY growth up to 53.1%.
As smartphone markets become saturated, suppliers look to foldable phones as a potential demand-stimulating design. Samsung and Huawei etc. have put several concept phones on display in MWC 2019. WitsView, a division of TrendForce, holds that foldable phones are still in the stages of market-response observation and product-design adjustment, and predicts for them a meager smartphone market penetration rate of 0.1% in 2019. Foldable phones penetration rates will have to wait until more panel providers join the game and panel costs see significant improvements for a chance to rise above 1% in 2021, and accelerate past 3.4% in 2022.
According to the latest investigation by WitsView, the optoelectronics division of TrendForce, prices have recently dropped below cash costs for some TV panel sizes; for example, 32-inch TV panel quotes have dropped below US$40. As prices are expected to near rock bottom and drop no further, demand of TV brands shall see a gradual return, causing small and medium-sized TV prices to rebound in March.
According to the latest report of TrendForce- Breakdown Analysis of China’s Semiconductor Industry, the revenue of China’s IC design industry reached RMB 251.5 billion in 2018, an annual growth of nearly 23%. HiSilicon, Unisoc, and Beijing OmniVision Technologies ranked top three in the 2018 revenue ranking. Looking ahead to 2019, China will continue to seek chip self-sufficiency, driving the growth of domestic IC design industry. The revenue is expected to total RMB 296.5 billion, but the YoY growth rate is moderated to 17.9% due to a series of headwinds, including the weak demand outlook for consumer electronics, the slowdown in global economy, and uncertainties brought by the U.S.-China trade war.