The total revenue from the global top 10 providers of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) service for 1H18 is estimated to grow by 10.5% YoY, reaching US$11.12 billion, reports TrendForce. Particularly, JCET, TSHT and TFME, the major three Chinese OSAT providers, are projected to represent a share of 26.9% in the total revenue of the top 10 providers in 1H18, hitting a new record high.
According to the latest research by TrendForce, the demand for sensing camera in automotive OE (Original Equipment) market will see considerable growth in 2018, driven by the development of smart vehicles in high-end market and the establishment of regulations in the U.S., the EU, Japan and China. The shipments of sensing camera in automotive OE market are expected to reach 121 million units in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 63% compared with 74 million units in 2017.
According to LEDinside’s 2018 Infrared Sensing Application Market Report, pulse oximeter heart rate sensors have been widely introduced into smartwatch and wristband markets, pushing the demand for infrared optical components. Apple is expected to increase the accuracy of pulse oximeter heart rate sensors in its new-generation Apple Watch, thus may double the amount of green LEDs and infrared LEDs used in the products. The amount of photodiode needed for the new products may be four to five times more than in previous models, and the photodiode will also be larger in size.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the smartphone market has remained in the low season since 4Q17. Smartphone vendors did not start to stock up on components until the end of February 2018, when the end demand began to bounce back. Together with the remarkable performance of China's top smartphone brands, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, the global production volume of smartphone reached 340 million units in 1Q18, an increase of 5.3% over one year ago.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the oversupply in the NAND Flash market has resulted in price decline of Client SSD, which in turn drives the demand. DRAMeXchange expects that the SSD adoption rate in the notebook market will exceed 50% this year. In particular, PCIe SSDs will gradually replace SATA III SSDs, the current mainstream product, at a faster pace. The penetration rate of PCIe in the client-SSD market will also have a chance to reach over 50% this year.