How is the trade war between the US and China affecting Taiwan, Japan and South Korea? Why are semiconductors and 5G becoming the key issues of their brawls? 5G technologies are bringing revolutionary changes to the ICT industry's operation and ecosystem. Apart from the economic benefits, they have strong implications in terms of many sensitive issues, such as data and national security. This is the reason why both the US and China are taking the matter seriously.Semiconductors are the key driving the ecosystem behind the Internet. High-speed calculation and mass storage all need support from semiconductors, which as a result are the foundation of the ICT industry. The US-China trade tensions have recast semiconductor giants South Korea, Taiwan and Japan back to the center of the stage. South Korea currently has the largest memory industry worldwide, while Taiwan's foundry sector is the global production center of top-end chips. Although the trade war is between the two superpowers, the battlefields are actually in Taiwan and South Korea.In order to shed light on all these latest developments, I've written my eighth book of my career in the ICT industry: Asian Edge: On the Frontline of the ICT World. Although the focus of the ICT industry may not necessarily shift entirely from the West to the East, the roles of the ICT industry players in the East are definitely growing much more important.The book also describes how Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, all located on the first island chain at the edge of Asia, have been able to reach where they are right now and how they have gained competitiveness making them stand out from the US and China. This book represents an Asian perspective and an Asian researcher's view on the ICT industry.In 1985 - the year Microsoft released Windows, and the first year of the PC era - I returned to Taiwan to participate in the planning of the local ICT industry and witnessed the PC industry's booming growth while working at Hsinchu Science Park. At the time, I worked with colleagues reporting to ICT industry pioneers such as KT Lee, Stan Shih and Morris Chang, and saw substantial OEM orders come knocking on the doors of Taiwan's ICT industry in the 1990s, creating the heyday that pushed Taiwan to the top of the global ICT manufacturing sector.After year 2000, the worldwide ICT industry's focus has turned from PCs to mobile communication devices, and China's industries had also grown strong after 20 years of economic reform. With its strong domestic demand, demographic dividend, capital market and investment from national capital, China has won out in nearly all core industries - from petrochemical, steel, shipbuilding and automobile to IT applications such as panel, solar, car-use battery - they have made efforts into developing.What are the keys to China's success? In the past 30 years, I have made trips that have taken me to almost 100 cities in China in order to be at the frontline to understand the business models and the influences of Taiwan IT players moving production to China's Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu and Chongqing. My experiences living in the US for 18 months and as an exchange student in South Korea for two years also helped give me a clear understanding of how Taiwan and South Korea have been caught between the US-China row.As a researcher studying the relationships between the industries in the US and Asia, a witness of the global ICT industry's transformation, I felt responsible to provide the information that I have of the frontline to people around the worldwide and to share my views through support from historical facts.During the past 18 months, I have visited India, Japan, South Korea, China, UAE, Iceland, Netherlands, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland - a total of 16 countries. I have seen changes to the world, the critical roles that South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are playing in the global market, and the reaction of the supply chain to the competition between the US and China.(Note: This is part of a series of articles by Digitimes president Colley Hwang on the latest developments of the IT industry in the wake of the US-China trade war.)
Mobile modem chips are likely to become scarce strategic resources in the 5G era, now that Intel has decided to exit the 5G smartphone modem market to focus on 4G and 5G modems for PCs, IoT and smart home devices, according to industry sources.Intel announced the decision soon after Apple and Qualcomm struck a surprise settlement in their ongoing patent infringement and royalty disputes related to Apple's use of Qualcomm modem chips in iPhones.The Intel move and the Apple-Qualcomm settlement have indicated that 5G mobile modem chips can hardly be suitable for investment by non-dedicated makers, unlike smartphone APs, which handset vendors can develop on their own and secure profitable development as long as their annual shipments can reach a scale of over 100 million units, just as what Apple and Huawei have achieved, the sources commented.This is because 5G mobile modem chips, though only responsible for signal transmission, must involve both sub6 GHz and mmWave technologies and be compatibile with 2G/3G/4/G/5G systems, the sources reasoned further.At the moment, there are only five modem chip suppliers in the world, namely Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, MediaTek, HiSilicon and Unisoc. Samsung and HiSilicon develop the chips for use on their own smartphones. Of the remaining three purely IC design houses, Qualcomm's modems can serve both iOS and Android systems, while MediaTek and Unisoc mainly support the Android camp.In the 5G era, handset vendors are more interested in in-house development of AP chips than modem chips, and the world's existing five mobile modem chip suppliers are poised to embrace bright business prospects for the segment, industry sources noted.
Taiwan startup KKStream, a video streaming service consultant affiliated with Taiwanese music streaming service provider KKBOX Group, will leverage AI, big data and cloud computing solutions as well as 4K and 8K applications to offer multiple B2B video streaming services to help clients better grab business opportunities associated with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to company president Eric Tsai.KKBOX founded KKStream in February 2016 to handle B2B video streaming services launched two year earlier, providing a technology platform to help enterprise clients create video streaming services carrying their own characteristics, with clients including telecom operators, cable TV operators, retail chains, and content providers, Tsai disclosed.Tsai stressed that his company has developed many AI, big data and cloud computing applications that can help understand music and video preferences of users, recommend music and video programs catering to their needs, and remind them to access the programs on streaming.In the upcoming 5G era, Tsai continued, KKStream will incorporate VR and AR technologies to launch more innovative video streaming services.Tsai highlighted his firm's per title encoding service, with AI applied to judge the optimal bit rate in accordance with the complexity of films before being compressed to allow more economical bandwidth for users and provide better film quality.Tsai said that KKStream hopes to help content providers make direct contacts with consumers, and provide a different access for traditional large-size channel distributors to foray into music and video renting businesses.Tsai, who used to serve as technical director at KKBOX, stressed that his company is also keen to combine diverse domains to create more values for its services.KKStream is now an advanced technical partner of Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling the company to help clients set up their exclusive video streaming services faster by utilizing cloud transmission and storage services offered by AWS, according to Tsai.Besides the markets in Taiwan and Japan, KKStream will move to promote its business to Southeast Asian countries, which are moving at full throttles to develop smart city infrastructures, showing great growth potentials for video streaming services, Tsai noted.KKStream president Eric Tsai
Samsung Electronics uses mainly 18nm process technology to manufacture server DRAM chips, and is gearing up for transition to a newer 16nm process node in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.Samsung has held an over 50% share of the global server DRAM market in terms of unit shipments. The company has started volume producing 8Gb server DRAM chips using 18nm process technology since mid 2018, and will scale up substantially 16nm-made chip output in 2020, said Digitimes Research.In addition, speculation has been circulating in the industry that a batch of Samsung's 18nm server chips shipped to a US data center vendor was returned due to unstable product quality. The incident should have limited impact on the market equilibrium and prices, given that only an insignificant portion of total server DRAM shipments has been affected.Server and data center applications are set to replace PCs and mobile devices as the largest target market of DRAM chipmakers by 2023, Digitimes Research believes.
At FPD China 2019, more flat panel production equipment and related component suppliers were present, while the number of flat panel makers decreased. But the main focus of its technology forums was still on emerging display technologies, in particular foldable AMOLED.Flexible AMOLED technology has been drawing much attention after the debut of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Fold smartphone at MWC 2019.Although sales volume of AMOLED-based foldable smartphones will be limited in 2019 due to pricing, the ramping up of AMOLED panel capacity by China's makers, and the China government's efforts to foster local materials and equipment suppliers wiil drive down AMOLED prices to a sweet spot where more handset brands will roll out affordable foldable smartphones, Digitimes Research believes.In addition to flexible AMOLED, aSi-based AMOLED (or called micro OLED) and micro LED technologies were also hot topics at the forums in terms of their potential applications in the VR/AR sector.The development of AR applications has been slower than expected, but the development of aSi-AMOLED, which will come with higher resolution, brightness, contrast and faster response time, has made some breakthroughs technologically. Along with the development of AR applications by IT giants such as Apple, the aSi-AMOLED technology has a high market potential.For micro LED, the yield rates for mass transfer of chips remain a major barrier. Without the ability for mass production, which is essential to bring down production costs, Digitimes Research believes that micro LED-based devices are unlikely to enter the consumer electronics market until 2021-2022, with high-end smartwatches likely to be the most promising application initially.
The Taipei municipal government, as a co-organizer of the ongoing Smart City Summit & Expo 2019, runs a pavilion to showcase over 30 smart city solutions for public housing, transportation, medical care, education, public security and others.It hopes to make the city a site for enterprises to experiment innovative products or services for POC (proof of concept) before tapping overseas markets, said Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je.Taipei is developing a public housing project with partnerships from Far EasTone Telecommunications and Chicony Power Technology. They will develop a cloud computing-based smart management system featuring electronic fences, security surveillance based on image recognition, a rooftop PV system with an energy management system and drone patrol.For smart transportation, the city government has offered smart parking services as well as UBike rental bicycles and WeMo rental electric scooters for public sharing and collected use data as reference for transportation planning. In addition, the city government in 2018 introduced ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) to public buses to help drivers and enable real-time monitoring of their driving.The city has developed a digitized police patrol system, a smart management system for road and pipeline construction, a mobile disaster prevention app, an IoT-based monitoring system with visualized data display for detecting landslides in residential areas on hillslopes.The city, in efforts to promote smart administration, also offers cloud-based land administration and cash-free payment services.Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je speaks at Smart City Summit & Expo 2019Photo: Taipei City Government
Teco Electric & Machinery and its subsidiaries are exhibiting smart solutions used in retail, transportation and energy management at Smart City Summit & Expo 2019 in Taipei during March 26-29.Teco is showcasing a service robot with its lower body being an AGV (automated guided vehicle) equipped with in-house-produced DC servo actuator and motor for mobility, and the upper body customized in design to cater to different needs such as delivering meals at restaurants, use in medical care, logistics and security patrol.It is exhibiting a smart micro-grid monitoring matchded with an energy management system for PV and wind power-generating facilities. It said it has exported the system to an island country in the Pacific.Teco Smart Technologies' smart lockers are capable of accepting cash-free payment and service bookings, and have been installed as smart baggage lockers at Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport.Another subsidiary, Information Technology Total Services, is showcasing a cloud computing-based precautionary repair/maintenance system system which uses AIoT technologies to make big data analysis of electric vehicles' repair/maintenance records to conduct predicative maintenance and dispatch repair staff.A Teco-developed service robot for meal deliveryPhoto: Company
Global shipments of smartphone-use TDDI (touch and display driver integration) chips are expected to increase 20% in 2019 from about 414 million units in 2018, according to Digitimes Research.The supply of TDDI chips fell short of demand in 2018, due to limited available capacity at IC foundries, said Digitimes Research. TDDI chip shipment growth was partly constrained by the tight supply last year.TDDI chip shipments for 2018 still represented a more than 40% increase compared to 2017, Digitimes Research noted. Suppliers saw their downstream panel customers and smartphone vendors express more willingness to adopt TDDI chips in their devices.TDDI chip shipments are set to enjoy another increase this year, but growth will decelerate due to a general slowdown in the global smartphone market, Digitimes Research indicated.Novatek Microelectronics remained the largest supplier of TDDI chips in 2018, followed by Synaptics, according to Digitimes Research.
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have signed an agreement to set up a joint innovation center to foster local startup businesses and help small- to medium-size enterprises in digital transformation.The center, to be located at Startup Terrace innovation park in New Taipei City, will have an accelerator and provide AWS cloud computing services and technological training. It will offer business and technological consulting services in IoT, AI, big data analysis, machine learning and cloud computing to cultivate local talent, help Taiwanese companies shorten time to market and tap overseas markets.The center will cooperate with international accelerators to help local startup businesses go international and introduce foreign startups into Taiwan.AWS will provide curriculums, workshops and seminars to train about 2,000 professionals a year, said Alex Yung, AWS corporate vice president and managing director for Greater China.Taipei Computer Association will be responsible for operating and maintaining hardware and software at the center.Startup Terrace has so far attracted 12 accelerators and 56 startup teams.
Smart City Summit & Expo 2019, the largest AI-based IoT solution fair in Taiwan, is taking place in Taipei City during March 26-29, with 450 local and overseas exhibitors featured in 1,260 booths, according to co-organizer Taipei Computer Association.The event is expected to attract more than 33,000 visitors, including over 2,000 professionals from abroad.The event features various conferences, including Smart City Mayors' Summit which was a dialogue platform for city leaders attended by over 150 mayors and city representatives from around the world on March 26.The Sustainable City Forum focuses on the following topics: Circular economy, social innovations and civic engagement, green economy, green finance, and new opportunity for energy services. CTalk consists of dialogues among city leaders, chief innovation officers and executives to share experience about latest development of smart cities in terms of smart mobility, e-governance, city revitalization and use of smart solutions.The Industrial Development Bureau under Ministry of Economic Affairs on March 25 hosted a World System Integrator (SI) Conference which is aimed to be a platform for exchanging opinions and making partnership to form an SI ecosystem. More than 150 overseas SIs and nearly 300 local ones attended the conference.Global Organization of Smart Cities (Go Smart), a Taipei City government-initiated alliance that provides a platform for experience exchange and intercity POC (proof of concept) for smart city solutions, will be formally established on March 27 at the event. A total of 92 cities and 41 firms worldwide have participated in Go Smart.Over 70 telecom operators worldwide will attend World Telecom Smart City Conference focusing on 5G application to development of smart cities on March 28.AI 50 Campaign will showcase innovative AI-based smart city solutions developed by 36 startup businesses from 15 countries.There are also smart medical care, smart transportation, smart architecture and smart education exhibitions.Smart City Summit & Expo 2019Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, March 2019
