According to The Future of Smartphone Era Webinar by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, the global smartphone market has been approaching saturation, with less room for product differentiation. Thus, smartphone makers have shifted their focus to next-generation foldable models. WitsView expects the first foldable smartphone to be launched in 2019, accounting for only 0.1% in the global smartphone market. The penetration rate is estimated to reach 1.5% in 2021.
LED companies have been keeping low stocking due to the sluggish demand in the end markets in 2018 and impacts of the China-US trade war, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. Looking ahead to 2019, the overall industry still has risks of oversupply, but demands for niche applications, including fine-pitch LED digital display, Mini LED backlight, UV-C LED, automotive lighting and high-efficiency lighting LED, have a positive outlook and may drive the market growth in the future.
TrendForce expects the global shipments of VR devices to reach 4.65 million units in 2018, and 6 million units in 2019, a YoY growth of 29%. Oculus’s strategy of price cut has successfully boosted sales since the release of Oculus Quest at the beginning of this year.
According to the latest report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, the shipments of gaming monitor (with a frame rate above 100Hz) would reach 5.1 million units in 2018, an annual growth of 100%.
Contract prices of DRAM products have started to slide since 4Q18, and a certain amount of DRAM contracts have now been negotiated as monthly deals, instead of quarterly ones, reports DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. For some contracts, the prices have been adjusted downward twice in this November, which was very rare in the industry. The situation indicates that the OEMs now have a negative outlook on the market and the price falls are expected to enlarge in the first quarter of 2019.
