IF / News

NH Investment & Securities has pointed out that Apple’s M1 chip orders account for about 25% of TSMC’s 5 nm process capacity. However, TSMC has already moved most of its 5nm capacity to Apple’s foundry (iPhone 12’s A14 chips). There are expectations that Apple will transfer orders that TSMC cannot satisfy to Samsung’s foundry for processing. (CN Beta, IT Home, GizChina)

Samsung Electronics has seen orders demanding 14nm and above processes ramp up from its China-based fabless clients recently, according to Digitimes. It is mainly because the cooperation relationship between Samsung and the semiconductor industry in Mainland China has rapidly increased in recent years due to the conflicts between China, the United States and Japan and South Korea. In addition, the Mainland China has accelerated its independent chip research and development and the market size has continued to expand.  (Digitimes, Digitimes, Money-Link, Sohu)

Toshiba is allegedly in talks to sell two 8” wafer fabs to United Microelectronics (UMC). The two 8” fabs are located in Oita (Oita prefecture, southwest Japan) and Kitakami (Iwate prefecture, northeast Japan). However, Toshiba has denied the rumor. (Digitimes, Nikkan, TechNews, China Times, Sohu, Yahoo)

Regarding the current widespread concern about the shortage of 8” capacity in fabs, and whether it will also affect the shortage or delivery time of products such as MCU. Gigadevice has stated that the company’s current capacity supply is healthy, and the 3 major product lines in 1H21 will all expand production. (Sina, China Flash Market, Sohu, Laoyaoba)

Panasonic has been showing transparent OLED display prototypes and concepts since 2016, using panels produced by LG Display. In 2019 Panasonic said it plans to release its first transparent OLED product in 2020, and true to its word, Panasonic has now launched the TP-55ZT110 and TP-55ZT100 transparent OLED modules. (CN Beta, TechRadar, Panasonic, OLED-Info)

Huawei is allegedly planning to launch a 2021 model of its strategic smartphone brand the P series sometime in 1H21. OLED panel suppliers of P50, Samsung Display and LG Display, were preparing for supply as of the current time. (My Drivers, The Elec, CN Beta)

Samsung Display has originally planned to stop the production of LCD panels by the end of 2020. The company now plans to end the production of LCD panels at its L8 fab in the Asan plant by Mar 2021. Samsung has been manufacturing LCD panels at its Asan plant in South Korea and Suzhou plant in China. The company has already signed a contract to sell its Suzhou plant to China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT). Earlier 2020, Samsung sold some of the equipment from its L8 plant to Efonlong. (CN Beta, Sam Mobile, Sina, ET News)

Xiaomi has filed patent applications for a few designs that depict a foldable handset with a pop-up camera. When unfurled, the device sports a large display that looks like a tablet. A vertically triple rear camera setup can also be found on the back. The hinge divides both halves of the device vertically from the middle. (CN Beta, Gizmo China, LetsGoDigital)

O-Film has revealed that its 7P 108MP optical lens has completed small-batch verification. From 13MP to 100MP, and from 3P to the 7P optical structure club, O-Film has gone through three years of technical tackling, breaking through the barriers of high-end lens technology and becoming a domestic first-class optical company. O-Film’s 1Q20-3Q20 camera module sales were 553M units, a year-on-year increase of 21.81%. (Laoyaoba, The Paper, Sohu, Sparrow News, IT Home)

DRAM suppliers’ bit shipments exceeded expectations due to the demand surge from prior to the September 15 deadline of U.S. sanctions prohibiting the shipment of tech products to Huawei, according to TrendForce. Among the different application segments of the DRAM market, the server DRAM segment exhibited the weakest procurement momentum due to server manufacturers experience excess inventory, leading to a general decline in DRAM prices.  Micron has managed to post a significant revenue growth despite headwinds,. In sum, the quarterly global DRAM revenue for 3Q20 increased by 2.0% QoQ to USD17.46B. (GizChina, TrendForce, TrendForce)

Huawei has filed a design patent titled “Mobile Phone with Graphical User Interface for Temperature Measurement and Display Results”. The patent says that after measuring the temperature of a human or an object through the camera of a phone or a tablet, the result of the measurement can be viewed on the device’s display itself. (Gizmo China, Sina)

According to incoPat, Huawei filed 8607 patents in 2020 – making China on par with the US in wireless communications patents. Each country accounted for 32% of the worldwide numbers in 2020. Huawei eclipsed Qualcomm in its patent filing and output in 2020. (Gizmo China, SCMP, Phone Arena)

Huawei has allegedly notified components manufacturers in Taiwan to re-purchase lens, PCB board and other components in Dec 2020. In view of the fact that Qualcomm has previously announced that it has obtained a license to supply some products to Huawei, including 4G products. Therefore, it is speculated that Huawei will restart the production of 4G smartphones. (LTN, Yahoo, AA Stocks, CN Beta)

Chinese handset rivals of Huawei including Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo are making aggressive moves to seize market share from their giant rival, after stepped-up U.S. sanctions hobbled Huawei’s supply chains. (Laoyaoba, Reuters)

According to Gartner, in 3Q20, global smartphone sales have reached 366M units worldwide, which is 5.7% less than in the same period in 2019. Samsung is still the leader with 80.82M units sold and 22% of the market. In general, of the Top 5 manufacturers, only Samsung and Xiaomi were able to increase sales – by 2.2% and 34.9%, respectively. (CN Beta, GizChina)

The board of Pegatron, Apple’s second largest contract manufacturer, has approved an initial investment of USD150M (INR1100 crore) for building manufacturing facilities in India. The company CEO Liao Syh-jang has indicated that Pegatron’s factory in India is expected to start production in 2H21 or in early 2022 and the company plans to make more investments in India over the next 2 years. (Mac Rumors, Economic Times)

The Indian Government has added 43 more Chinese apps to its growing list of banned applications. Among these is the official mobile app for shopping platform Aliexpress as well as several Alibaba group apps, TV apps WeTV and MangoTV as well as a few dating apps and games. (GizChina, GSM Arena, PIB, RFI, Sina)

According to TrendForce, despite the change of ownership, however, “new Honor” still has to cope with the shortage of foundry capacity in 2021, leading to a forecasted market share of 2%, while Huawei’s market share is expected to reach 4%. Apple is expected to capture some demand that was previously aimed at Huawei’s high-end smartphones. At the same time, Huawei’s Chinese competitors Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo are expected to ramp up device production. Hence, the volume of new smartphones coming from these sources will exceed the estimated market share gap left by Huawei. Also, if the smartphone market does not have sufficient demand to accommodate the overly inflated production plans in 2021, then brands may have to readjust their production targets. (TrendForce, TrendForce)

Samsung Galaxy A12 and A02s are announced: A12 – 6.517” 720×1560 HD+ v-notch TFT, MediaTek Helio P35, rear quad 48MP-5MP ultrawide-2MP macro-2MP depth + front 8MP, 4+64 / 6+128GB, Android 10.0, side fingerprint, 5000mAh 15W, EUR179 / EUR199. A02s – 6.517” 720×1560 HD+ v-notch TFT, Qualcomm Snapdragon 450, rear tri 13MP-2MP macro-2MP depth + front 5MP, 3+32GB, Android 10.0, no fingerprint scanner, 5000mAh 15W, EUR150.  (GSM Arena, Android Authority, Sam Mobile, 91Mobiles)

Xiaomi POCO M3 is announced in Europe and US – 6.53” 1080×2340 FHD+ u-notch IPS LCD, Qualcomm Snapdragon 662, rear tri 48MP-2MP macro-2MP depth + front 8MP, 4+64 / 4+128GB, Android 10.0, side fingerprint scanner, 6000mAh 18W (9.6mm thick), USD149 or EUR149 / USD169 or EUR169. (GSM Arena, Android Authority)

Moto E7 is announced in Europe and UK – 6.5” 720×1600 HD+ v-notch IPS LCD, MediaTek Helio G25, rear dual 48MP-2MP macro + front 5MP, 2+32GB, Android 10.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh 10W, EUR120 or GBP99.  (Liliputing, Android Headlines, GSM Arena)

Gatik, the autonomous vehicle startup focused on the “middle mile,” is already using its self-driving box trucks to deliver customer online grocery orders for Walmart. The company — freshly stocked with USD25M in Series A funding — is expanding up into Canada with a partnership with retail giant Loblaw. (TechCrunch, Forbes, Globe Newswire)

According to IC Insights, global GDP expanded by a very healthy 3.0% in 2018, 0.5 percentage points above the “threshold” for a global recession. However, in 2019, very weak GDP growth in the high-­‐income countries / regions of only 1.6% pulled global GDP growth down to just 2.4%, slightly below the global recession threshold. The worldwide GDP is forecast to increase 2.6% in 2020, up only slightly from the 2.4% increase registered in 2019. (IC Insights report)

The global trade war between the U.S. and China was still in force (now 1.5 years old). IC Insights has summarized the history of the trade war. The situation regarding Huawei is extremely complex. There are essentially an infinite number of possibilities of what products may or may not be shipped to Huawei. (IC Insights report)