India's three major telecommunication companies account for 90% of the business opportunities. Vodafone's market share is declining. The fastest-growing player is Reliance Jio, which accumulates service users through a successful marketing ploy of low-cost mobile phones. Its current market share in India's telecommunication market has reached 37% with 436 million users.
Makers in Apple's supply chain have seen no major changes to orders for iPhone 13 devices despite speculation about the US vendor looking to cut production for the new smartphones. The memory sector is entering a period of correction, with commodity DRAM prices likely to fall 15-20% in first-quarter 2022. Rising components, production and logistic costs are heaping pressure on notebook vendors.
Despite reports claiming Apple would cut its orders for the iPhone 13 series, sources from related camera module component suppliers have pointed out that their orders for October and early November have not seen any major changes.
TSMC has narrowed its revenue growth outlook this year to 24%, based on its forecast of 4.5% sales rise at the midpoint of the foundry house's latest guidance for fourth-quarter 2021. Despite a media report's claims that Apple is cutting its production goals for iPhone 13 seies for 2021, components suppliers have disclosed hey have not seen any reductions in orders from the client for the new smartphones. In China, manufacturers are making contingency plans to cope with power restrictions, which they expect will become a long-term policy of the country.
Component suppliers for Apple's new iPhones have seen no cutback in orders thus far this year, in contrast to a media report indicating Apple may slash its projected iPhone 13 production targets for 2021 by as many as 10 million units due to chip shortage, according to industry sources.
Judging from the status of the upstream supply chain, regional markets and the COVID-19 pandemic, Digitimes Research expects global smartphone shipments to increase 4.7% on year and arrive at 1.3 billion units in 2021 and will see on-year growths between 4-7% every year in the next five years, according to the figures from Digitimes Research's latest five-year (2022-2026) forecast report on the smartphone industry.
Thailand's gaming industry raked in more than US$1 billion in revenue last year amid COVID-19, according to Thailand Business News citing data from NewZoo, with the number of gamers increasing to 32 million in the country.
India's huge population and potential economic growth have attracted investments from foreign IT enterprises, such as Samsung, Netflix, and Oppo, while local large enterprise groups such as Tata and Reliance have been pushing for innovations across industries in India with increasing investments as well.
Taiwanese companies are investing in ASEAN more than in China this year. From January to August this year, investment in ASEAN countries has nearly tripled, compared to the same period in 2020.
The competitive pressure felt by Android from Apple is expected to slightly ease due to shortages of Apple's latest iPhone 13 lineup in Europe, the US, and Taiwan, according to sources from mobile phone channel distributors. Apple's iPhone 12 lineup is also in short supply.
Many enterprises have shifted their orders or some production capacities from Vietnam to China amid COVID-19 lockdowns in the Southeast Asian country, according to a Vietnamese report. .
Handset sales in the Taiwan market during the fourth quarter are likely to grow nearly 15% as brand vendors push for higher sales, particularly Apple's new iPhone 13. Major Android brands including Samsung, Vivo and Oppo are expected to see drastic changes in market share.
Despite speculation that TSMC has seen Apple and MediaTek cut orders for its 5nmand 7nm processes, the wolrd's top foundry house should still be able to achieve its sales targets in 2021, sources at its suppliers have maintained. And sources from the PCB sector have disclosed that order momentum from Appel for iPhone 13 remains normal. Meanwhile NOR flash supply is expected to remain tight through 2022.
Apple reportedly is cutting component orders for iPhones by up to 25%, but Taiwan's PCB makers in the supply chain for the new iPhone 13 have stressed their order momentum from the US vendor remains quite stable, according to industry sources.
After being hit hard by the resurgence of COVID this year, Vietnam is gradually resuming manufacturing and social activities. Other countries in the region are expecting higher smartphone sales, while Indonesia is becoming a production base of EV batteries.
Speculation has emerged in the chipmaking market that cutbacks in 5nm and 7nm chip orders placed by Apple and MediaTek could result in TSMC missing its revenue target for 2021 of over 20% growth. Nevertheless, sources at TSMC's suppliers remain upbeat about the foundry's sales prospects for the rest of this year.
India's Reliance Group might have to increase subsidies for its low-cost smartphone JioPhone Next more than it has previously estimated due to shortages of semiconductors and higher costs of components.
Notebook component suppliers in China are making contigency plans to cope with the country's power restrictions and they are expecting production costs to rise as a result. China's smartphone vendors are cautious about demand in the second half of the year, and remain slow in placying orders for components. But backend firms are upbeat about demand from smartphone processor vendors starting first-quarter 2022.
Smartphone sales in Indonesia increased 28% on year and 22% on quarter in the second quarter of 2021, driven by the launches of new products and promotions, Counterpoint Research's latest figures show.
China-based smartphone vendors have increasingly adopted locally-produced OLED panels for high-end models, helping Chinese panel makers challenge Samsung Display's dominance in the global supply of smartphone-use OLED, according to industry sources.
Apple is working with multiple NAND flash chipmakers to develop cost-effective QLC (quad-level cell) NAND flash solutions, and could adopt the memory in its iPhone series as early as 2022, according to industry sources.
Backend firms have received engineering samples of next-generation smartphone APs from vendors such as Qualcomm and MediaTek, and expect a particularly strong first-quarter 2022 for processing smartphone APs, according to industry sources.
PCB and other handset component suppliers continue to see their China-based brand customers remain cautious about placing orders thus far in the second half of 2021, with order visibility for the rest of this year still being uncertain, according to industry sources.
Samsung sold nearly 300 million handsets in 2019, a number Samsung regards as its last line of defense, hoping to sell no less than 300 million handsets a year to sustain its business development. For every node in its wafer foundry business, Samsung has targeted mainly the mobile communication sector, which also renders Samsung the best opportunity of breakthrough. However, contrary to expectations, Samsung's share of the Chinese handset market has plunged to less than 1%, and in the Indian market Samsung is facing strong challenges from Xiaomi and Vivo. In order to maintain competitiveness in pricing, outsourcing to Chinese makers has become an option. It is estimated that about 60 million Samsung handsets are manufactured by outsourcing partners.
