In response to the rising demand for mobile payment, Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 7 includes iris recognition as a standard feature that assists in user authentication. The arrival of Galaxy Note 7 is expected to trigger a new round of hardware competition among smartphone brands as they will also likely to incorporate iris recognition into their flagship devices. According to the latest analysis from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, iris and facial recognition features will gradually become prevalent in mobile devices. LEDinside further estimates that in 2020, global shipments of mobile devices with the iris and facial recognition features will reach 400 million units. By that time, the market value of infrared LEDs (IR LEDs) for iris and facial recognition will total around US$250 million. Thus, biometric recognition has become one of the most potentially profitable applications for IR LEDs.
Market oversupply continued to put downward pressure on DRAM prices in the second quarter, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. Compared with the prior quarter, the global average sales price (ASP) of DRAM for all applications fell by more than 5%. On the other hand, the global DRAM revenue for the second quarter rose 6.3% sequentially to US$9.1 billion due to the expansion of bit supply. Increased output from Micron’s 20nm and SK Hynix’s 21nm processes were the drivers of this bit supply growth.
Worldwide notebook shipments for the first half of 2016 fell just 4% year on year to 74.18 million units, according to global research firm TrendForce. Channel inventories returned to a healthy level in the second quarter. At the same time, there was a significant increase in stock-up demand due to arrivals of new notebook products and preparations for back-to-school sales in September. These factors led to an above-expected shipment results.
The latest lithium cell price report from EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, finds prices of cylindrical cells in the second quarter rose by 1~4% compared with the first quarter. During the same period, the overall production capacity of polymer cells also expanded, causing a 1~2% quarterly decline in polymer cell prices. In sum, the worldwide lithium battery market reached a healthy supply-demand balance in the second quarter.
