TrendForce has adjusted its 2018 global notebook shipments projection downwards due to the worsening shortage of Intel CPUs. Intel originally planned to begin mass production of CPUs based on its latest Whiskey Lake platform in 3Q18, when the notebook market would be in the busy sales season. However, PC-OEMs are now finding an insufficient supply of Whiskey Lake CPUs, which has disrupted vendors’ notebook shipment plans for this year’s second half. Therefore, TrendForce now estimates that this year’s total notebook shipments will drop by 0.2% YoY, and the CPU shortage may further impact the entire memory market as well.
The share of In-Cell solutions in the global smartphone market is estimated to reach 27.1% in 2018, marginal up from 26.2% of last year, according to the latest research on touch display solutions by WitsView, a division of TrendForce. This is due to the rapid adoption by Android smartphones, despite the fact that the new iPhones this year will not adopt In-Cell solutions. Particularly, the share of TDDI (Touch with Display Driver Integration) In-Cell solutions is likely to grow significantly to 17.3%, although the IC products for TDDI In-Cell products experience a tight supply.
The global smartphone market has been growing in 2Q18 driven by the launch of new models by Chinese smartphone brands and the brands’ strong sales in overseas markets, according to TrendForce. As the result, the production volume of smartphone grew by 3% QoQ, reaching 352 million units in 2Q18, and is expected to grow by another 6% QoQ to reach 373 million units in 3Q18 driven by the holiday sales in the peak season.
Samsung will launch models with in-display fingerprint sensors, following Vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO, says TrendForce. The adoption by these major Android smartphones has constantly increased the penetration of in-display fingerprint technologies, among which ultrasonic and optical fingerprint sensing have made considerable breakthroughs. TrendForce estimates that ultrasonic and optical in-display fingerprint sensors will account for 13% of all fingerprint sensor technologies in 2019, significantly up from 3% in 2018.
According to the Large Size Panel Cost Breakdown, the latest report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, the overall production costs of large-size panels are estimated to drop by 1~1.5% QoQ in 3Q18, less than 2~2.5% in 2Q. This is because the components of panels have a relatively limited price drop influenced by the tight supply. Moreover, the panel makers still face the amortization of equipment capital expenditure for new technologies including narrow-bezel, Mini LED and inkjet printing OLED.
