China's handset makers shipped a total of 180 million smartphones globally in the second quarter of 2019, down 2.5% on quarter and 5.3% on year, Digitimes Research has estimated.Huawei remained its status as the top vendor in China and managed to ramp up its shipments by a double-digit rate in the third quarter as the impacts of the US trade ban on its overseas shipments have begun to wane and it has continued to dent market share from fellow vendors in the domestic market, says Digitimes Research.Other top-tier vendors Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, ranking second to fourth, all registered sequential shipment declines in the third quarter, as overseas shipment gains were eroded by decreased domestic sales.Total smartphone shipments by China's handset vendors are expected to register an on-year decline in the fourth quarter of 2019 as domestic sales are expected to continue to fall as compared to a year earlier and demand from overseas markets will not be as strong as seen in previous years due to weak global economy, Digitimes Research says.

Taiwan-based ODMs have been eager to move production out of China upon suggestion by their clients amid the US-China trade disputes. But most of the notebook clients have not been as keen when it comes to committing their production to the relocated production lines. Now the ODMs are striving to improve yield rates and reduce production costs trying to convince clients of the efficiency of their non-China-based manufacturing bases. The uncertainties plaguing the global economy have hit various industries this year, but TSMC chairman Mark Liu believes the global semiconductor industry is heading towards another wave of growth driven by AI and 5G.Taiwan ODMs strive to improve yield rates, costs for non-China production lines: Taiwan-based notebook ODMs have completed most of their plant relocation and their present focus is to improve production yield rates and reduce costs at the relocated facilities in a bid to retain clients, according to industry sources.AI, 5G to trigger chip market growth, says TSMC chairman: The emerging AI and 5G applications will be triggering the next phase of growth in the global semiconductor market, according to TSMC chairman Mark Liu.

Taiwan's shipments of small- to medium-size LCD panels are expected to decrease 17.6% on quarter and 31.1% on year in the fourth quarter of 2019 due to off-peak season effects and reduced smartphone shipments resulted from the US-China trade dispute, according to Digitimes Research.Shipments of small- to medium-size panels by Taiwan's makers grew 12.4% sequentially to 201 million units in the third quarter of 2019, driven by increased shipments for smartphone and feature phone applications. However, third-quarter shipment volumes were still down 34.9% from a year earlier.In the third quarter, handset panel shipments alone surged 19.2% on quarter, while those for tablet applications were down 21.8% due to decreased demand for 7- to 8-inch panels.Shipments of small- to medium-size panels for all applications will see a setback sequentially in the fourth quarter, with tablet panels to drop 8.1%, handset panels to plunge 18.4%, and those for other applications to slide more than 10%, Digitimes Research estimates.For individual makers, HannStar Display will see its shipments of small- to medium-size panels fall 20.1% sequentially in the fourth quarter after registering a 20.1% gain in the previous quarter.AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux will suffer sequential drops of 8-13% in the fourth quarter after their shipments grew 6-7% a quarter earlier.

Shipments of LCD TVs by Taiwan-based makers are expected to grow 11.2% sequentially to 8.22 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019, driven by peak-season demand, according to Digitimes Research. On a yearly basis, the shipments will still represent a decline of 15.3%.Taiwan's LCD TV shipments edged up 3.2% sequentially but dropped 13.3% on year to 7.39 million units in the third quarter of 2019, partly as a result of increased tariffs on Chinese imports by the US, Digitimes Research says.The ratio of TVs shipped to North America against Taiwan's total TV shipments increased to 39.5% in the third quarter as Vizio raised the proportion of its sourcing to Taiwan. Meanwhile, shipments to Asia accounted for 28.9% of Taiwan's overall volumes in the third quarter, down from 36.5% a year earlier.Shipments of 50-inch and above TVs accounted for nearly 50% of Taiwan's overall volumes in the third quarter, squeezing the demand for 40- to 49-inch models; such a ratio will climb to over 50% in the fourth quarter. 4K models made up for the first time over 50% of Taiwan's TV shipments in the third quarter.In the third quarter, the top-two makers TPV Technology and Foxconn Electronics ramped up their aggregate share to 67.5% from 60.5% a quarter earlier. Innolux moved up one notch to third place in vendor rankings, and Amtran Technology retreated from the third to fourth.

Taiwan cloud software startup SoftChef has been devoted to developing comprehensive solutions from edge devices to infrastructures since its inception in 2017, providing customized IoT solutions to better serve clients, according company founder and CEO Josh Chai.In a recent interview conducted by Digitimes, Chai highlighted the importance for enterprises to build a "terminal" concept and incorporate intelligence into end devices. He also stressed that future business model must focus more on hardware connections to better learn and serve real needs of consumers.Q: What drove you to set up the cloud software venture?A: After serving networking specialist D-Link from 1999-2013, I left to set up a B2B e-commerce platform GCR in cooperation with the firm's ex-CEO Tony Tsao as I thought the pure hardware production industry could hardly advance farther. But one year later, I returned the GCR management right to Tsao and joined InfinitesSoft, a developer of hybrid/multi-cloud management software, to learn more about cloud technology.At InfinitesSoft, I found great business potentials in the Asian cloud market, especially in Southeast Asia and China, prompting me to establish SoftChef to develop cloud-based IoT platforms for IT hardware makers.Q: After venturing into the IoT management platform domain, did you see any difference between the actual market demand and what you envisioned initially?A: Initially I adopted the serverless application framework of Amazon Web Services (AWS) seeking to create a general-purpose IoT management platform allowing enterprise clients to manage IoT devices, collect and store data anytime.But later, we found IoT is a highly customized domain. Actually, an ideal IoT must be like an "oven" allowing enterprises to put in their own materials and process them into distinct "business breads" they need, as so-called standardization and automation can hardly be actualized in IoT vertical applications. In other words, clients require a versatile and agile oven rather than a vending machine selling standardized services.Q: How do you assess Internet of Everything that many think may materialize after 5G commercialization?A: In the IoT era, it doesn't mean that all devices should be connected to the Internet, as not all the data collected can generate values and meaningless connections are just a waste of resources. In this regard, a "terminal" concept should be established, meaning that data can undergo edge processing at the local end allowing only valuable data to be stored at the cloud end. In short, any IoT end device should be given timely intelligence.Q: What kind of value do you think IoT connection can generate for enterprises?A: If enterprises know little about the purpose of such connections and what data they want, IoT connection can hardly generate useful value for them and adopting even the cheapest NB-IoT transmission system will be not cost-effective for them.IoT is not a technology but a process of transforming digital economy into infonomics and data economy, with production-oriented business model replaced by service-oriented one highlighting sales of services not merchandizes.In the future, enterprises have to reply on hardware devices connection to better learn what consumers need so as to offer services that can really cater to their needs and further make them willing to pay for the services at whatever costs.SoftChef founder and CEO Josh ChaiPhoto: Vicky Liu, Digitimes, October 2019

In incorporating AI-based systems, enterprises must first determine the real purpose of adopting them and should noy use them merely as a tool for data presentation, otherwise the systems may become a "disaster" for backend data users, according to Kevin Tu, senior director at Macronix International.Tu made the remarks when sharing Macronix's experiences in incorporating AI systems into its memory fabs at a seminar held alongside the just-concluded TPCA Show in Taipei. More than 20 years ago, the company already utilized Super Nova production management system developed in house based on an AI concept to enhance process control and plant management.Data visualization is just the first step of any AI-enabled system, and what really counts is data utilization, Tu said, adding that the system must possess a decision-making capability to help IT engineers work out smart decisions. If the system is used for data presentation only, it will remain a traditional IT system, unable to show the real value of an AI system.Tu reasoned that data generated by a fab is now measured in terms of TB, and it would be a "disaster" for engineers who need to sort out critical part from the big data if the AI system lacks decision-making capability.After data becomes visualized, Tu continued, enterprises must narrow the scope of data by classifying the data in accordance with their importance, and then engineers can determine whether to access the data or not before locating useful data.At the seminar, Macronix president JK Chen also noted that his firm's 12-inch fab with a monthly capacity of 20,000 wafers can collect over two billion pieces of data a day, and the data volume will grow exponentially to over 10 billion pieces for an 12-inch fab with a monthly capacity of 100,000-120,000 wafers. With this, he said, how to convert the big data into useful ones will pose the largest challenge to fab managers.

Apple has reported record earnings for its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, fueled by accelerating growth from its services, wearables and iPads. Apple is expecting strong growth for its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter, but it remains to be seen how much momentum will coming from its new iPhone 11 series and freshly-launched AirPods Pro. Its iPhone 11 series has seen better-than-expected sales, but market observers believe annual iPhone sales will no longer be able to return to the peak seen in 2014 when iPhone 6 was released. Wearables are likely to continue shoring up Apple's profitability, but AirPods Pro shipments are estimated to account for only a small portion of the vendor's overall earbuds shipments in 2019.Apple reports strong earnings for fiscal 4Q19: Apple has posted revenues of US$64 billion for its fiscal 2019 fourth-quarter ended September 28, an increase of 2% from the year-ago quarter, with quarterly earnings per diluted share reaching US$3.03, up 4%.New iPhone sales may soon hit ceiling, supply chain facing quotes reduction pressure: Sales of the new iPhone 11 series have been stronger-than-expected but may hit the ceiling soon, which may eventually create pressure for supply chain partners to cut quotes, according to industry sources.AirPod Pro shipments estimated at 2 million units in 2019: Shipments of Apple's just-unveiled AirPods Pro are estimated at only two million units this year, according to industry sources.

Worldwide notebook shipments are forecast to drop 1.8% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2019 after registering a nearly 2% increase in the prior quarter, according to Digitimes Research.With the US set to impose a tariff on China-imported notebooks beginning mid-December, most notebooks brands remained keen on pre-stocking extra inventory during the third quarter, while strong demand from the enterprise sector and the fact that Huawei's notebooks were still in production, also contributed to the shipment growth in the third quarter.As most brands have already built high levels of inventory and Intel's CPU shortage issue has not yet been fully resolved despite its capacity expansion, global notebook shipments are expected to dip sequentially in the fourth quarter, but will still register on-year growth, Digitimes Research numbers show.Top-brand Hewlett-Packard (HP) will perform strongly in the enterprise sector, but its overall performance will not be as well as competitors due to negative factors including business re-organization and supply chain relocation. Lenovo, in second place, will see shipments pick up slightly on quarter in the fourth quarter thanks to Chinese e-commerce platforms' seasonal promotion activities, but the proportion of its shipments from Taiwan ODM partners will slip.Third-place Dell will see fourth-quarter shipments drop sequentially due to the company's less competitive strategy for inexpensive consumer models despite steady sales for enterprise models.Apple and Microsoft are both expected to perform strongly in the fourth quarter. Apple's new 16-inch ultra-thin-bezel MacBook Pro is expected to begin volume shipments in the fourth quarter, while Microsoft's new third-generation Surface Laptop will boost sharply the brand vendor's shipments sequentially in the fourth quarter.Because of Apple's new MacBook Pro, Quanta Computer, the key supplier of the machine, is expected to see rising share of Taiwan's shipments in the fourth quarter, while Wistron and Pegatron will also see their shares grow thanks to Dell and Microsoft ramping up orders.

Tiger Accelerator has been devoted to helping Taiwan's healthcare startups and tech enterprises set up virtual headquarters in the EU and tap market opportunities there since its founding in Taipei in July 2018, according to company founder Valerie Hsu.Hsu said her company is actively helping at least six Taiwanese healthcare startup teams build connections with hospitals in Europe and collect medical data, paving the way for their substantive cooperation with hospitals there in clinical applications of their products and services.Hsu stressed that Taiwan healthcare startups must get to know medical services validation processes, medical treatment systems, and medical insurance compensation systems in European countries, so that they can more easily venture into the EU market.Quanta Computer is collaborating with Tiger Accelerator in tapping the market for smart healthcare solutions for the elderly people in Holland, starting with conducting the POC (proof of concept) process with hospitals and nursing homes for senior citizens in addition to collecting relevant data and health indexes before entering substantive cooperation with them, according to Hsu.Hsu indicated that it is hard to change European countries' well-established medical treatment systems, and therefore healthcare startups must focus on developing disruptive medical innovations rather than challenging the systems, if they want to succeed in foraying into Europe.

Server demand was slow in the first half of 2019, but growth has resumed starting in the second half, with Facebook becoming the biggest client for Taiwan-based server ODMs in the third quarter, according to Digitimes Research's latest findings. In the components supply chain, the launch of Apple's new AirPod Pro will boost shipments of SiP substrate suppliers, reportedly including Taiwan-based Kinsus and Nan Ya PCB.Global server shipments to continue growth in 4Q19, says Digitimes Research: Global server shipments picked up 11.2% sequentially in the third quarter of 2019, a growth similar to Digitimes Research's forecast made in the previous quarter, and are expected to see a mild on-quarter increase in the fourth quarter, better than Digitimes Research's original anticipation of a slight drop. The server industry will also see its first quarterly on-year growth in 2019 in the fourth quarter.Kinsus, Nan Ya reportedly among SiP substrate suppliers for new AirPods: Taiwan's Kinsus Interconnect Technology and Nan Ya PCB are both reportedly among SiP (system in package) substrate suppliers for Apple's just-unveiled AirPods Pro series, which adopt SiP design to integrated related chip components to support new functions including noise cancellation and water resistance, according to industry sources.