04-08: Huawei leads the tri-cam market segment with more than 100M units shipped by 2020; China accounts for about 40% of the annual global DRAM market; etc.
Touch Display
With new domestic LCD production lines start operating, panel costs have fallen sharply in 2018. The costs for the 32”, 40”, 49”, and 55” panels fell from the highest of USD74, USD141, USD152, USD181, and USD215 in 2017 to USD43, USD72, USD111, and USD145 in Dec 2018. Because of this, the world’s major panel makers performance fell sharply in 2018. The net profit of BOE, CSOT, Innolux and AUO decreased by 54%, 52%, 94% and 68% respectively. LG Display (LGD) was the first loss since 2011. (Pacific Securities report)
Pacific Securities consolidate production lines information of BOE, CSOT, Innolux and AUO. (Pacific Securities report)
Pacific Securities consolidate production lines of Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD). (Pacific Securities report)
Since 2017, the production capacity of domestic panel makers has begun to accelerate. In 2017, only BOE Fuzhou Gen-8.5 line and the HKC Chongqing Gen-8.6 line were put into production; in 2018, there were BOE Hefei Gen-10.5 line, the CETC Xianyang and Chengdu Gen-8.6 lines begun operation; in 2019, LCD production capacity was further released, including CSOT Gen-11 line, HKC Cangzhou Gen-8.6 line, Hon Hai Gen-10.5 line, HKC Mianyang Gen-8.6 line begun mass production. (Pacific Securities report)
According to IHS Markit, in 4Q18, the hole-punch screens began shipping, and the share will continue to rise in 2019. The notch screen will continue to dominate as the primary screen form in 2019. (IHS Markit report)
According to IHS Markit, foldable phones will not dominate the smartphone market in the predictable cycles. In 2025, shipment of foldable screens will also account for only 10% of that of flexible AMOLED. (IHS Markit report)
Apple’s 2019 iPhone would be direct successors to the 2018 iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. There will be allegedly 2 new 2019 iPhone models with 6.1” and 6.5” OLED displays. These models would be specially designed to accommodate the rumored triple-camera system. (CN Beta, Pocket-Lint, Macotakara, 9to5Mac)
Camera
The traditional 2D camera can only obtain planar image information. The depth camera is composed of multiple cameras and depth sensors, which can acquire the three-dimensional position and size information of the subject, and is used in the mobile phone for face recognition functions such as device unlocking and mobile payment. China Industrial Development Research Institute predicts that the global depth camera market will grow from USD2.2B in 2017 to USD7.89B in 2021. (TF Securities report)
In 2017, the global visual artificial intelligence (AI) market was about USD7B, up 12.36% year-on-year. The scale of China’s visual AI market reached CNY4.1B, up 259.6% year-on-year, much higher than the growth rate of the global market. With the gradual maturity of visual AI technology and the gradual expansion of application fields, it is expected that the scale of China’s visual AI market will further expand by 2020, reaching CNY75.55B. (Essence Securities report)
According to IHS Markit, promoted by leading smartphone OEMs especially Huawei, Samsung and Apple, the penetration rate of triple camera growing rapidly, and it will close to 20% in 2019. The periscope type triple camera cost is high, limit suppliers, it will occupy the battery space and high reliability requirement, so it is only equipped in the flagships of Huawei and OPPO. (IHS Markit report)
According to IHS Markit, Huawei leads the tri-cam market segment with more than 100M units shipped by 2020 follows by Apple. (IHS Markit report)
Memory
According to IHS Markit, the DRAM market is experiencing strong price decline as the market entered an oversupply situation in 2H18 that will extend into 2019. Bit shipments will continue, but ASPs will decline by nearly 40%, reminiscent of the price declines in the mid-to-late 2000s that were driving by persistent oversupply, and companies rushed to increase capacity and market share. (IHS Markit report)
According to IC Insights the DRAM market increased 39% and the NAND flash market grew 18% in 2018. The growth rates followed astounding market increases of 77% for DRAM and 53% for NAND flash in 2017. Boosted by significant growth in these two product segments, the overall memory IC market grew 30% to a record-‐high of USD168.4B in 2018. This growth came after the total memory market smashed through the USD100B sales level for the first time in 2017, increasing 64% to USD129.9B. (McClean Report 2019)
IC Insights estimates that China accounts for about 40% of the annual global DRAM market and about 35% of the flash memory market. In the past few years, the government of China and China-‐based companies have dedicated enormous resources and embarked on a campaign to build and equip new wafer fabs to manufacture “home grown” memory devices and improve their self-‐sufficiency in the memory IC business. (McClean Report 2019)
Phone
As the scale of Transsion’s business has expanded year by year, the output and sales volume have steadily increased, and the production and sales rate has remained at a relatively high level of over 98%. In terms of product unit price, with the continuous improvement of product competitiveness, the price of the company’s feature phone is relatively stable, and the smartphone is increasing year by year. (TF Securities report)
Isaiah Research estimates that Huawei’s smartphone shipment in 2019 could reach 225M units followed by Xiaomi’s 113M units, OPPO’s 113M units and vivo’s 104M units. (Isaiah Research report)
HiSense U30 is announced – 6.3” 2340×1080 FHD+ IPS hole in display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, rear dual 48MP-5MP + front 20MP camera on display, 8+128GB, Android 9.0, 4500mAh, CNY2,700. (Gizmo China, GizChina)
Wearables
nubia α “wearable phone” is launched – 4.01” 960×192 flexible display with aspect ratio of 36:9, Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100, 5MP camera, 1+8GB, α OS, 500mAh, supports “Air Interaction Mechanics” (AIM) gestures, eSIM 4G China Unicom, CNY3499 (black) / CNY4499 (18K gold plated). (Gizmo China, CN Beta)
nubia partners with 1MORE launching nubia Pods truly wireless earbuds – Bluetooth 5.0, support for Qualcomm’s aptX audio and AAC HD audio, sweat-proof with 45° angled tips, ear earbud has 55mAh, the case has 410mAh, CNY799. (CN Beta, Gizmo China)
