Huawei's handset shipments seem to have defied the US trade ban, registering strong growth in the second quarter and sending the vendor setting an even more ambitious goal for the entire year. Its impressive shipments have been bolstered by demand in its home market, where domestic brands have a dominating presence. Worldwide smartphone market leader Samsung Electronics has lost its leadership in the China market, but the Korean giant's smartphone chip business could benefit from that loss. Can Huawei ship 270 million handsets in 2019?: Huawei should have seen its smartphone shipments much affected in the second quarter of 2019 after being blacklisted by the US government in early May.China handset makers may use Samsung Exynos chips for 5G phones: One of the top-four handset brands in China reportedly has decided to adopt Samsung Electronics' Exynos platforms for the production of 5G smartphones, according to industry sources.

The latest escalation in the US-China trade war may have cast a shadow over the IT supply chain, but the world's top foundry house TSMC is seeing strong demand for its 7nm production capacity. One of its major clients for the 7nm node is China-based HiSilicon, the IC design arm of Huawei, who has seen growing demand at home despite setbacks in overseas expansions due to the US trade ban. The freshly announced US tariffs on Chinese imports actually have come as a short-term boost to Taiwan-based notebook ODMs' shipments, as their clients seek to build up extra inventory. TSMC enjoys robust 7nm chip demand: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has enjoyed strong demand for 7nm chips and already utilized 100% of the process capacity since the third quarter of 2019, with orders placed by not only its major clients including Apple, Huawei and AMD but also crypto mining chipmaker Bitmain Technologies, according to industry sources.HiSilicon enhancing in-house chip development capability: HiSilicon Technologies, a chipset solution arm of Huawei, has been ramping up its chipset orders for 7nm and other advanced node products at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), as the firm is gearing up efforts to build up its in-house IC development capability, according to industry sources.Notebook ODMs to post higher-than-expected shipments in August: Notebook ODMs are expected to enjoy higher-than-expected shipments in August, as the 10% tariff on China-sourced notebooks staring September 1 has promoted brand vendors to stockpile inventories by asking production partners to deliver as many shipments as possible by the end of the month, according to industry sources.

UK startup Yourgene Health, engaged in non-invasive prenatal testing services, is promoting its bioinformatics and next-generation gene sequencing platforms seeking to help materialize precision medicine and popularize genetic tests, according to Darren Lin, head of the firm's research services.Lin said that his company can collect and analyze related big data for gene sequencing and testing applications, and can leverage latest ICT technologies to sharply boost testing accuracy and lower testing costs, making precision medicine and genetic tests more easily achievable and affordable.Lin said only blood from the arm is needed to conduct non-invasive prenatal testing, generating no amniocentesis-associated risks. Based on statistics, a fetus 10-12 week old can provide the most embryo chromosome, he said, adding that the volume of fetus chromosome must reach at least 3.5% of the given blood sample to secure the DNA test accuracy for the fetus.Lin noted that Yourgene Health is moving to lower gene sequencing cost, now commanding the largest portion of non-invasive prenatal testing charges. He added the company now focuses on three business aspects: metagenome sequencing, whole genome sequencing (WGS) and whole exome sequencing (WES).Darren Lin, head of research services at Yourgene HealthPhoto: Mark Tsai, Digitimes, July 2019

The latest US move to slap 10% tariffs on US$300 billion worth of Chinese goods has cast a shadow over the prospect of a significant recovery for the IT supply chain in the second half of 2019. TSMC and Intel may have to lower their guidances. Intel also faces strong challenges from AMD, who sees growing popularity for its latest 7nm offerings.US new tariffs on Chinese imports may dim TSMC, Intel prospects: The Trump administration's latest move to slap a 10% tariff on the remaining US$300 billion worth of Chinese imports, including handsets, notebooks and TVs, starting September 1 may significantly dent the sales upturn momentum for terminal markets, which in turn will cloud the prospects for relevant supply players, with even TSMC and Intel very likely to adjust downward their guidance at least for the fourth quarter of the year, according to industry sources.AMD to see DIY PC market share hit 10-year high of over 30% by end-2019: AMD has seen growing adoption of its new-generation 7nm chips including Ryzen 3000 seies processors and Radeon 5700 series GPUs by makers of PCs, motherboards and graphic cards as mainstream chipsets, and its share of the DIY PC processor platform market is expected to surge to a 10-year high of over 30% by the end of 2019, according to industry sources.

UK-based startup Kheiron Medical Technologies, dedicated to AI analysis of breast cancer, has successfully developed a mammography intelligence assessment (Mia) system with high cancer screening sensitivity and specificity, according to the firm's Compliance and Clinical Ops Lead Annie Ng.Ng said at a UK Innovation Medtech Workshop held alongside the recent BIO Asia-Taiwan 2019 that her company's Mia system can provide a suggestion of whether a women should be called back from screening or not and highlight regions of interest.She continued that Kheiron's Mia system carries a screening sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 89%, compared to 75-87% for the former and 85-89% for the latter. Additionally, the Mia system can be integrated with the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) to help doctors work out better medical care solutions for patients.Ng also noted that Kheiron has won the ISO 13485 medical devices, quality management systems requirements certification, and is the first British company certified by CE for a radiological deep learning software.

Apple saw disappointing iPhone sales during its fiscal third quarter 2019, and its component suppliers see weak order visibility for the vendor's upcoming iPhones. And things seem to be heading for the worse for Apple following US President Donald Trump's latest move to impose tariffs on more China-made goods, further damaging confidence across many industries. In the display panel industry, falling prices and weakening demand are sending suppliers reducing output. There are still some market segments where makers still have high hope, such as 5G. Now notebook makers are eager to roll out 5G notebook models by the end of this year.Components suppliers see low order visibility for new iPhones: Apple has started making preparations since July ahead of the launch of new iPhones in September, but order momentum for touch panels and other components has been weak, according to industry sources.AUO, Innolux likely to reduce output to shore up panel prices: Taiwan's top-two flat panel makers, AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux, are expected to follow in the steps of their rivals in China and Korea to cut back their output in order to prevent panel prices from falling further, particularly for large-size TV applications, according to industry sources.Notebook vendors gearing up to launch 5G models: The world's top-3 notebook vendors Lenovo, HP and Dell are set to introduce their first 5G models in the second half of 2019, and Apple is also expected to roll out its 5G MacBook series in the second half of 2020, according to industry sources.

Taiwan startup TMS Technologies, dedicated to operating a DataBar-MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platform integrating Taiwan's traffic data, will extend MaaS API (application programming interface) solutions to Southeast Asia in line with the government's efforts to enhance trade and tourism exchanges with regional countries, according to company sources.TMS data manager KP Wang said that the company will first incorporate data concerning traffic events, parking lots and scenic spots in Thailand into its traffic data mart before covering similar information in more Southeast Asian countries.The firm's president Tim Chen also disclosed that TMS' ultimate goal is to become the regional window for international digital mapping and GPS solutions providers, by providing quality traffic data to help them render high-dynamic mapping and navigation services to regional markets.Chen continued that his company will also help businesses engaged in transportation and tourism segments develop more application service scenarios.

The Foxconn Group's 5G+8K business strategy eyeing the synergy of the next-generation network technology and Ultra HD applications is gaining momentum, as an affiliated LCD maker in China is set to start volume production at its 10.5G line next month making large-size TV panels. Others in Taiwan's supply chain are also gearing up 5G: A government-backed lab and 18 companies, including MediaTek, have formed an alliance to develop white-box 5G small cells eyeing the global market. And top IC backend service provider ASE Technology Holding is also enjoying growth for its SiP business, thanks to growing demand related to 5G applications.Sakai SIO 10.5G line to kick off volume production in September: A 10.5 line of Sakai SIO International Guangzhou, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sakai Display Products (SDP), has rolled out its first 65-inch LCD panel, paving the way for the plant to kick off volume production at the end of September 2019, according to company sources.Taiwan industrial alliance eyeing white-box small cell market: The Taiwan government-backed Information and Telecommunications Research Laboratories (ITRL) is working with a number of local companies to develop 5G small-cell base stations, with an aim to sell devices directly to telecom operations in the global market in 2020.ASE gaining ground in SiP on heterogeneous integration demand: Taiwan's top IC backend specialist ASE Technology Holding has seen its SiP (system in package) business expand substantially so far this year amid growing demand for heterogeneous chips integration to support increasingly complicated 5G, AI and IoT applications, according to company CFO Joseph Tung.

After falling 8.7% on quarter and 11.9% on year to 32.66 million units in the second quarter of 2019, global tablet PC shipments are expected to surge 19.3% sequentially in the third quarter, thanks to the peak-season effect, the launch of new iPads, and Huawei gradually resuming normal tablet shipments, according to Digitimes Research.The second-quarter shipment contraction was attributed to the absence of new iPad models as sales stimulus, the US trade ban undermining Huawei's shipments, and weak demand for white-box tablets.In terms of second-quarter shipments by brand vendors, Apple firmly ranked first, Samsung and Amazon regained second and third places, respectively, and Huawei retreated to fourth. Lenovo returned to fifth place after ramping up shipments in the quarter.In the third quarter, Lenovo will advance to third place replacing Amazon, which may drop to fourth place as a result of weak shipment momentum following its mid-July Prime Day promotions. Huawei is expected to fall further to the fifth despite gradual shipment pickup.As to sizes, 10.x-inch tablets will continue to dominate the market. Apple is set to release 10.2-inch new iPads in late third quarter. Overall, tablets sized over 10 inches will surge to over 70% of global shipments in the fourth quarter.In-cell touch display will gradually replace GFF (glass-film-film) touch screen among non-Apple tablet products, with the former's shipment ratio to surge to 36% in the fourth quarter.As a chip supplier for Amazon, MediaTek returned to the 2nd spot in terms of tablet processor shipments in the second quarter thanks to Amazon's shipment ramp-up. But the Taiwanese chipmaker is expected to fall to third place in the third quarter on weakened shipments at Amazon, with Qualcomm to rebound to the second spot.

Commercialization of 5G services is expected to accelerate in 2020, with TSMC planning to expand its 2019 capex to meet robust growth in 5G chip demand. And 5G smartphone shipments next year may be much higher than many market observers expect. TSMC will not be the only one in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain to benefit from the 5G boom, as major chip vendors' Taiwanese suppliers in the silicon-based or compound semiconductor foundry and packaging sectors are revving up their capacity utilization and expansion. Meanwhile, Taiwan-based notebook ODMs saw impressive shipment growths in the second quarter of 2019 as clients built up inventory in response to the US-China trade tensions.Global 5G phone shipments may reach 150-200 million units in 2020: Global shipments of 5G-enabled smartphones might come higher than market expectations, with some market watchers believing that such shipments are likely to reach 150-200 million units or an over 10% share of global handset shipments in 2020.Chipmakers, supply chain firms revving up for 5G opportunities: With HiSilicon, Broadcom and other fabless chip vendors gearing up to tap growing demand for 5G infrastructure chipsets, their Taiwanese silicon-based or compound semiconductor foundry and packaging partners are fully revving up their capacity utilization and expansion, according to industry sources.Global notebook shipments to drop in 3Q19, 4Q19, says Digitimes Research: Worldwide notebook shipments rose over 20% sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, but volumes in both the third and fourth quarters are expected to experience sequential declines, according to Digitimes Research's latest notebook tracker.