The total revenue of the global DRAM industry grew by 9% QoQ, and again hit a new record high in 3Q18, reports DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. The survey of the price trends in the third quarter shows that contract prices in the mainstream application segments (i.e. PC, server, and mobile) maintained QoQ increases of 0-2%. Particularly, the contract price of mainstream DDR3 consumer DRAM was the first to drop during the quarter because of the weakening demand. Also, contract prices of graphics DRAM products fell by around 3% QoQ due to the sharp drop in the demand related to cryptocurrency mining as well as the higher base of the previous quarter.
The global tablet shipments are expected to decline 4.3% YoY in 2018 to 145.5 million units, as the shipments of entry-level devices are on pace to grow weaker due to the rise of smart speakers and unfavorable currency exchange rates, according to TrendForce.
According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, the market has witnessed stronger demand for full-screen smartphones while higher screen-to-body ratio has become a major trend of this year. In order to make bezels narrower, drive ICs for mid- and high-end phones have been switching from solutions based on Chip-on-Glass (COG) packaging to those on Chip-on-Film (COF) packaging. With major smartphone vendors actively adopting COF solutions, the percentage of models using COF packaging would account for 35% of the global smartphone market in 2019, a significant increase from 16.5% in 2018.
TrendForce has published a new report profiling the latest trends in the global smart speaker market. According to data in the report, the global shipments of smart speakers are expected to reach 62.25 million units in 2018. Driven by the expansion of Google Home into more regions and the growth of smart speaker market in China, the shipments would increase further by 53% YoY, reaching 95.25 million units in 2019. With the strongest growth momentum among all categories of consumer electronics, smart speakers have emerged as a major application of voice interactions and are fast becoming the gateway to other smart-home products as well as the vast ecosystems. Companies including Apple, Facebook, Baidu, and Tencent have all entered the market this year, in addition to first movers.
The NAND Flash market has remained in oversupply for the whole year of 2018, according to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, with sufficient inventories for notebook/smartphone OEMs. The China-US trade war and the shortage of Intel CPU have made situations worse on the supply side. In October, the contract prices of SSD, and eMMC/UFS witnessed continued fall, while the price drop of NAND Flash chips and wafers appeared to be larger.
