DRAMeXchange , a division of TrendForce , points out that 1Q19 contract prices across all NAND Flash product categories were impacted by a weak server demand, an extended smartphone replacement cycle, less-than-expected sales for Apple's new phones and other end demand disappointments. Combined with the quarter fall, this quarter presents a drop of 20%, the most dramatic drop since NAND Flash supply surpassed demand back in early 2018.
According to TrendForce's newest research report, development momentum of advanced production processes has been dropping due to weakening demand in most end markets, including smartphones. Foundries face a severe challenge in 1Q19, and global foundry production revenue for the first quarter is expected to decline by around 16% compared to the same quarter 2018, arriving at 14.6 billion USD. TSMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries take first, second and third place respectively in market shares, and although TSMC's market share reaches 48.1% , it suffers a near 18% decline in YoY growth.
Global market research institute TrendForce points out in its latest Breakdown Analysis of China's Semiconductor Industry that, thanks to the large leap in demand of end markets such as those of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and industrial controls , as well as the stockouts and price hikes of several products such as MOSFET and IGBT, China's power semiconductor market has experienced a large growth of 12.76% to 259.1 billion RMB, with the discrete component market coming to a size of 187.4 billion RMB, a 14.7% increase from 2017; the power management IC (PMIC) market arrived at a size of 71.7 billion RMB, an 8% increase compared to 2017.
The latest analysis of the PC DRAM market from DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, finds that most contracts are now monthly deals rather than quarterly deals, with February even seeing a most unusual, large down-correction in prices. The current quarterly decline dropped from the originally projected 25% to nearly 30%, resulting in the sharpest decline in a single season since 2011.
According to TrendForce's latest statistics, the global top ten IC design companies, ranked by revenue, have just come out, with Broadcom, Qualcomm and NVIDIA, taking first, second and third, respectively. Among the top ten, Qualcomm suffered the largest decline due to the weak smartphone demand, with its revenue dropping by 3.9%; MediaTek was likewise impacted by the unsatisfactory smartphone demand, and suffered a decline of 0.7% (in USD) in annual revenue, but only 0.1% in TWD.