The global semiconductor market was in bad shape in 2023 with DIGITIMES Research having estimated the global semiconductor revenue at US$523 billion for 2023, an 8.9% decrease from a year ago.
Application processor (AP) shipments for Chinese smartphones performed below expectation in the fourth quarter of 2023 as handset shipments already peaked in the previous quarter, and the volumes will go down further in the first quarter of 2024, but only by a small margin.
The business operation of the DRAM and NAND Flash sector of the world's top three memory manufacturers - Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron - has improved since the beginning of the second half of 2023 and demand will enjoy a bigger recovery in the fourth quarter, boosting the three makers' revenues and profits.
AP shipments for Chinese smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2023 are expected to be weak, as handset brands already stocked up in advance in the third quarter.
The three primary high performance computing (HPC) chip suppliers, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia, all experienced lackluster sales in the first half of 2023 amid weak demand for HPC applications, according to a survey of DIGITIMES Research.
Few Taiwan-based IC design firms have made efforts toward high performance AI chips, autonomous driving chips, high performance computing (HPC) chips, and other emerging technologies whereas China has multiple companies endeavoring in these fields.
According to DIGITIMES Research's surveys and analyses, second-quarter 2023 smartphone application processor (AP) shipments to China-based brand vendors amounted to 132 million units, growing 10% from the prior quarter but plunging 33.4% from the prior year.
First-quarter 2023 smartphone application processor (AP) shipments to China-based smartphone brand vendors amounted to 120 million units, plunging 12.1% from the prior quarter and 32.6% from the prior year due to ongoing smartphone demand shrinkage on top of vendors' inventory adjustment and slow season.
Global smartphone application processor (AP) shipments are expected to come to 1.114 billion units in 2023, down 11.8% on year, mainly due to declining smartphone shipments and slow AP inventory depletion.
Application processor (AP) shipments to China-based smartphone vendors amounted to 137 million units in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 24% sequentially and 20.3% on year, and will experience another double-digit decline in the first quarter of 2023.
Shipments of application processors (APs) used in smartphones released by China-based brands went up 10.2% sequentially, but down 19.4% on year to reach 199.5 million units in the third quarter of 2022.
