Chinese smartphone brands have been growing rapidly driven by the strong domestic market and their heavy investments in R&D, according to the latest research by TrendForce. Since last year, the brands’ combined share has reached above 50% in the global smartphone market, where Korean and American brands used to dominate. The intensified competition would eliminate brands faster and make the market more concentrated. This year, the Chinese smartphone brands, independent design house (IDH) included, are expected to achieve a combined share of 54% as a result of successful expansion in overseas markets.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the global sales revenue of DRAM modules for 2017 totaled US$11.7 billion, amounting to a significant growth of 69% compared with the result of the previous year. The high revenue is due to the nearly 50% YoY growth of DRAM ASP, although the contribution of the spot market to the total DRAM revenue is getting smaller.
Qualcomm, the leading manufacturer of telecommunications chips and mobile processors, announced its decision to terminate the $47 billion purchase agreement to acquire NXP, a Dutch company known for automotive and IoT chips, after China’s Ministry of Commerce failed to approve the deal. Qualcomm’s business has been influenced by the slowing smartphone sales recently, and would face more risks brought by the saturated market in the future, says TrendForce.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, estimates that x86-based solutions will continue to be the market mainstream in 2018, with a global shipment share of 97%. Intel and AMD will continue to lead the development of server. Particularly, in the sector of Internet Datacenter, solutions based on the x86 architecture will still dominate the market due to its wide product range.
According to the latest report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, global TV panel shipments reached 136.89 million pieces in 1H18, a year-on-year growth of 11%. The record high shipments have ended the decline over the past two years. After a high price level in 1H17, the TV panel prices have been decreasing since 1Q18, which pushed brands’ panel purchases. Panel makers also offered special deal projects to increase the shipments, which further lowered the panel prices.