Chipmakers including MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Broadcom are set to ramp up their output for Wi-Fi 6/6E chip solutions looking to embrace booming demand for such chips and increase their market shares in 2022, according to industry sources.
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.
American clothing brands are seeing delayed production ahead of end-of-the-year shopping season because of reduced production in Vietnam, which logs the biggest quarterly fall in GDP for third-quarter 2021 due to the pandemic.
Tight fab capacity has been sending foundry quotes rising, which is expected to continue boosting profits for foundry houses in 2022. For the backend sector, supply of packaging leadframes is expected to remain tight with order visibility already extending to 2023. Networking device vendors are wary that chip and component shortages could curb their sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Taiwan-based networking device manufacturers including Accton Technology, Arcadyan Technology and Sercomm all expect their revenues in the fourth quarter to outperform the prior quarter's levels, but are still aware of challenges arising from the ongoing chip and component shortage.
The supply of wireless connectivity chips will stay tight through the first quarter of 2022, with Wi-Fi 5 chip modules from vendors in Taiwan able to satisfy only 70% of demand, according to sources at IC distributors.
Although materials in the fourth quarter are still in short supply, companies are starting to get a better handle on the pace of supply and demand and expect operations to improve, according to the network communications supply chain. However, what impact, if any, the power shortage in China will have is still uncertain.
Development of low and medium Earth orbit satellites is expected to bring many potential business opportunities for Taiwan-based communication equipment makers, according to Pegatron chairman TH Tung.
With the standards for the 5G protocols largely established, wireless communication providers in the US and Korea started to offer the service in select major cities starting third-quarter 2019. Not to fall behind, Taiwan also completed the bidding for its 5G bandwidths towards the end of 2019 and started offering services during second-quarter 2020, marking Taiwan among one of the fewer countries in the world currently capable of sustaining 5G communications. 5G communication has the advantage of higher data throughput, wider bandwidths, lower latencies, and can support much higher volume of connections. However, 5G networks require more base stations in a given area to provide users good coverages and services. Consequently, this has led to a rush from telecommunication companies investing in the deployments of the base stations to expedite the availability of the 5G networks.
Smartphone sales were strong in Indonesia in second-quarter 2021, with Xiaomi being the top selling brand. while Apple fans in Thailand will receive their new iPhones earlier than usual this year. And Malaysia will have new digital banks next year.
AMD and MediaTek are said to be seeking to form a joint venture that will develop notebook applications integrating Wi-Fi, 5G and high-transmission technologies. Other chip vendors in Taiwan are also hoping MediaTek to play a leading role in the local supply chain to compete with Qualcomm in the mmWave 5G market. In the EV market, Thailand has ambitious goals for its car manufacturing sector.
NAND flash pices may stablize in 2022, but supply is likely to turn tight in the second half of next year, according to Silicon Motion's president. Meanwhile, Chinese memory maker YMTC is ready to volume produce 128-layer QLC NAND flash, initially targeting consumer SSDs. And in a recent interview by DIGITIMES, Harish Krishnaswamy, CTO and co-founder of MixComm, and Marzieh Veyseh, CTO/CPO and co-founder of SiTune, talked about their views on the development of mmWave market, latest chip crunch, and the Satcom market opportunities.
MixComm, a provider of millimeter-wave (mmWave) and front-end solutions for 5G and Satcom applications, has recently announced a collaboration with SiTune, an innovator of multiple generations of RF and mixed-signal system on a chip, to develop 5G mmWave reference designs. Both companies have been recognized for their high-performance energy-efficient 5G solutions.
Fabless chipmakers are looking to step up their deployments in the 5G RF front-end module (RF FEM) and other device markets by working closely with their manufacturing partners, according to industry sources.
With the new-generation iPhones equipped with more antenna-in-package (AiP) modules, AiP packaging demand will be rising along with the iPhone sales, according to industry sources.
Taiwan's suppliers of high-speed transmission chips, which have obtained commitments from foundries to provide sufficient capacity support next year, are gearing up for a boom in their output value, according to industry sources.
In a recent interview by DIGITIMES Etron chairman Nicky Lu explains why monolithic/heterogeneous integration is important to the future of the semiconductor industry. Meanwhile Apple has increased the storage capacity of its new iPhone 13 series to up to 1TB, and memory makers believe this will prompt other smartphone brands to follow suit and equip their flagship devices with the same internal storage capacity. Backend service providers believe Apple's new iPad mini 6 will generate strong orders for 5G RF modules.
Smartphone users in India acknowledge that 5G will bring more possibilities, including more IoT appliances at home, higher resolution in graphics, and higher speed in download, a CMR survey shows.
China-based Vanchip Technologies, a subsidiary of MediaTek, is partnering with IC distributor WPG and GaAs foundry Win Semiconductors to promote its Wi-Fi 6 RF front-end modules (RF FEM) including power amplifier (PA), according to industry sources.
Apple has announced Apple Watch Series 7, featuring a re-engineered always-on Retina display with significantly more screen area and thinner borders, making it the largest display ever.
Digitimes Research, on August 25, hosted an industrial trend forum covering the latest topics of the communication industry such as 5G smartphones and telecom network infrastructure to assist Taiwanese vendors to get hold of the newest trends of the industry.
Taiwan's networking device makers see clear order visibility through the first half of 2022, thanks to demand from the stay-at-home activities and companies whose employees are retruning to offices. Cooling module suppliers believe that vapor chambers, now found mostly in notebooks, will become a key component for smartphones. But handset demand remains weak, reportedly prompting CIS vendor OmniVision to cut back orders for IC manufacturing in Taiwan.
Taiwan-based networking device manufacturers including Accton Technology, Arcadyan Technology and Sercomm have enjoyed clear order visibility through the first half of next year, while still encountering IC shortages, according to industry sources.
The rise of the global touchless economy has created new opportunities for 5G applications. Now no longer limited to mobile phones, new types of 5G data link endpoint devices are being developed.
While commercial 5G operations may have only just begun and its actual use in the general consumer market may still be limited, the industry is already thinking ahead to 6G.
