Samsung Display is expected to remain as a major panel supplier for Apple products throughout 2013 into 2014 despite previous industry rumors stating that Apple was looking to shift most of its orders away from Samsung, according to Digitimes Research. The rumors were based off industry buzz in the supply chain stating that due to tensions between Apple and Samsung over technology disputes, Apple was looking to allocate more orders to LG Display as well as to Taiwan-based panel maker AU Optronics (AUO). However, due to struggles AUO has reportedly faced in producing Retina display technology that will reportedly be used in the next-generation iPad mini, Apple has since rethought its position towards Samsung and will still be dependent on the company to provide the panel technology while decreasing the amount of orders it originally expected to give AUO. Digitimes Research believes that Samsung will be responsible for producing panels used in Apple's next-generation iPad mini, but that LG will still be the main supplier. Sharp is also expected to land orders for the iPad mini but less than Samsung. Additionally, LG will still produce more than half of panels used in iMac products but Samsung is expected to be the runner up, said Digitimes Research. Digitimes Research also said LG will be the main supplier for 9.7-inch iPad panels and that panels used in the next-generation iPhone will come from LG as well as JDI. Other rumors are currently circulating in the market that LG and JDI have plans to further expand their production capacity for Apple products in 2014 but have yet to state whether the capacity would be enough to draw Samsung out of the Apple supply chain picture. This article is an excerpt from a Chinese Digitimes Research report. Click here if you are interested in receiving more information about the content and price of a translated version of the full report.

The Android platform's gradually increasing demand over hardware specifications is expected to endanger the platform's share in the entry-level segment as hardware prices are gradually dropping and it is becoming more difficult for players to create an Android-based product at a low price, according to Digitimes Research. Entry-level hardware can still function smoothly with older Android operating systems, but the performance and features of older versions are no longer suitable for current demand. Compared to Android, Digitimes Research believes iOS has better management and less demand over hardware specifications. If Apple decides to release low-price products, the company will have advantages in cost control and product features, allowing the platform to have stronger competitiveness against Android Because of Android's high hardware demands, some smaller operating systems such as FireFox OS, Tizen, MeeGo and Windows Phone, have started to be considered by vendors. This article is an excerpt from a Chinese Digitimes Research report. Click here if you are interested in receiving more information about the content and price of a translated version of the full report.

Revenues generated through the sale of servers and related products by Taiwan-based makers are expected to top NT$300 billion (US$10.02 billion) in 2013, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures.Inventec and Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) are the top-two server makers in Taiwan, but Quanta Computer, the current number three, which focuses mainly on supplying server products directly to larger cloud computing service (Internet) players, will have a chance to challenge the number two position with an estimated share of 22% in revenues for 2013, Digitimes Research figures showed.Wistron is currently positioned fourth, and the top-four makers together will account for 88% of revenues.Since Taiwan makers are supplying 80% of global server hardware, Digitimes Research believes that for Taiwan makers to continue achieving growth, they will need to focus on improving the competitiveness of their solutions including enterprise storage, telecom products, professional software and services.This article is an excerpt from a Chinese Digitimes Research report. Click here if you are interested in receiving more information about the content and price of a translated version of the full report.Source: Digitimes Research, August 2013

The ecosystem of application processors has evolved with profound changes since the beginning of 2013, with entry-level to mid-range products becoming mainstream and vendor ranking in the industry fluctuating widely, according to Digitimes Research. Nvidia, which performed rather strongly in 2012, is expected to see its market share decline significantly in 2013, while Samsung Electronics' efforts to promote its own applications processors will affect sales of other chipset suppliers. While MediaTek will continue to expand its market share by the release of new processors for tablets and smartphones in the second half of 2013, LG Electronics is also expected to unveil chips based on its own architecture developed in-house. Huawei has not been really successful in the promotion of its own processors so far, but the planned launch of high-end models in the second half of 2013 is worth observing. Meanwhile, Intel and AMD have been focusing on development of SoC solutions based on x86 architecture, exerting increasing pressure on the ARM camp. As x86-based products are likely to raise their presence in the application processor segment in the second half of 2013, ARM is expected to heat up its competition with Qualcomm's Krait platform in the high-end segment utilizing its big.LITTLE architecture, while using its multi-core Cortex-A7 CPUs to compete in the US$50-100 mainstream segment, Digitimes Research said. This article is an excerpt from a Chinese-language Digitimes Research report. Click here if you are interested in receiving more information about the content and price of a translated version of the full report.

Global smartphone shipments reached 420 million units in the first half of 2013 and are expected to top nearly 950 million units for the full year, Digitimes Research has estimated. The supply of mobile RAM and NAND flash chips, which was tight and costly in the first half of 2013 in part due to price manipulation by suppliers, will ease in the second half, but that for HD and Full HD displays will remain tight in latter half of the year. Shipment growth in China will be limited in the second half as vendors will continue to digest their high inventories of 3.5-inch TD-SCDMA models, but shipments in India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America will remain robust during the period. Some handset design houses and OEMs in China have been shifting their focus to overseas markets, alleviating price competition in the homeland. Meanwhile, the top-four telecom carriers in the US have begun offering one-year subscription contracts, which is expected to stir up demand for high-end models. Four out of the top-10 smartphone vendors in 2013 will be China-based brands, and Taiwan-based HTC will be excluded from the top-10 ranking. Samsung Electronics, Apple and LG Electronics will be the top-three vendors, with Lenovo, Sony Mobile Communications and Huawei taking the fourth to sixth positions. ZTE will rank seventh, followed by Yulong (Coolpad), Nokia and BlackBerry, with each of the last four vendors shipping about 30 million smartphones in the year, Digitimes Research estimated. This article is an excerpt from a Chinese-language Digitimes Research report. Click here if you are interested in receiving more information about the content and price of a translated version of the full report.

The latest gossip and speculation floating around the supply chain, with none of the news being substantiated, is that Apple's plans for an inexpensive iPhone will focus on the China market and will include a TD-SCDMA version through cooperation with China Mobile.The rumors are probably based on the fact Apple CEO Tim Cook recently visited China Mobile and that a partnership there would be a way of paving the way for cooperation to sell TD-SCDMA versions of the inexpensive iPhone. The story is that a WCDMA version of the inexpensive iPhone would be sold through cooperation with China United Network Communications, an existing iPhone sales partner.In the China smartphone market, Apple is expected to continue its strong status in the high-end segment but faces increasing challenges from China-based smartphone vendors in the mid-range segment.China-based smartphone vendors, in order to maintain their market shares in the China market, have continued to upgrade product specifications with sales prices remaining unchanged or even lowered, bringing increasing competitive pressure on international vendors, thus leading to increased speculation that international vendors will address the issue with new low-end products.

Following declining on-year TV sales in 2012, vendors have looked to various strategies to bring a turnaround in 2013, including increasing the value-added features and sizes of their products as well as finding ways to reduce costs to bring lower pricing to end consumer markets. These efforts have proven successful to an extent, but consumers are still looking more out of their TVs that they otherwise can't get from their mobile devices, which has led many vendors to start focusing on increased panel resolution in 2013, most notably Ultra HD or 4K resolution.Most consumers as of mid-2013 have probably been exposed to an Ultra HD TV provided they have recently browsed a TV section at a major retailer. If they are anything like me, they were most likely drawn to the fine details and crystal clear images 4K has to offer. But will consumers still see the same results if and when they purchase a unit and hook it up at home?As of 2013, there is actually little 4K content in the market. There are a number of reasons for this, however, which pretty much boil down to cost. For starters, to upgrade the filming technology used when making TV shows or movies is costly as is providing the proper bandwidth.TV vendors are aware of this and many such as Sharp claim they have ways to turn Full HD content into 4K content without virtually losing any quality. Sharp recently unveiled a THX-certified 70-inch 4K TV for US$8,000 equipped with a dual-core processor inside the TV, which is claimed to be able to upscale regular HD video into what Sharp calls "4K-like" 3,840 by 2,160 resolution. However, many market observers believe that this upscale technique is merely a marketing gimmick and that the 4K content is essentially lost, as the content is merely compressed into a different format rather than streaming at its appropriate resolution.To put it another way, imagine trying to take YouTube video which only can be streamed at 720p and trying to force it to 1080p. Could you do it and truly get 1080p quality? Perhaps you may try to attach some kind of converting device that will somehow increase the resolution to 1080p, and you may see increased color saturation and images somewhat modified, but that gives more of an illusory effect rather than actual 1080p content.There are other options that vendors are turning to, however. Sony has released its 4K Ultra HD Media Player set as of July 15 at US$699. Media reports stated that the device is compatible with Sony's new KD-65X9005A 65-inch 4K TV and comes pre-loaded with 10 4K movies. Sony also reportedly has plans to later release its Video Unlimited 4K service in 2013, which will reportedly allow consumers to purchase various movies in 4K content at US$29.99 and rent at US$7.99.Developments in 4K streamingAround the world there are a number of measures being taken to implement 4K content into the market no later than 2014, according to Digitimes Research analyst Tom Lo. Germany-based Sky Deutschland is reportedly making efforts to make the content widely available in TV and film formats throughout Germany while Eutelsat Communications announced it is launching a dedicated demonstration Ultra HD channel for Europe on the EUTELSAT 10A satellite, which will be encoded in MPEG-4 and transmitted at 40 Mbit/s in four Quad HD streams.Additionally, Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt said in a recent media interview that "Streaming will be the best way to get the 4K picture into people's homes. That's because of the challenges involved in upgrading broadcast technologies and the fact that it isn't anticipated within the Blu-ray disc standard. Clearly we have much work to do with the compression and decode capability, but we expect to be delivering 4K within a year or two with at least some movies and then over time become an important source of 4K. 4K will likely be streamed first before it goes anywhere else."Lo also believes that gaming industries at large will not adopt 4K content in 2013, and that China-based companies are working to provide more 4K outlets for local consumers.So what are 4K TVs good for?At the very least, 4K TVs can help stream 3D content at 1080p. Normally, content viewed in 3D is cut in half due to the pattern retarder technology that is used, but having twice the resolution will help increase the format back to 1080p formats.The TVs also give consumers bragging rights, but those rights may be sacrificed upon viewing the technology from consumer's home entertainment area when they realize that 4K content is still not in abundance to make a $7,000 TV worth purchasing.

If Apple builds its own silicon at its own chip fab, the risk it will face will be greater than the benefits for the company, according to Nobunaga Chai, analyst for semiconductors at Digitimes Research. But if Apple has to own a fab, either Globalfoundries' Fab 8 in New York or IBM's 300mm (12-inch) chip plant - B323, also located in the same state - should be more favorable choice for Apple than any other fabs, said Chai.Chai was commenting on recent rumors that Apple may be looking to take full or partial ownership of a fab.But Chai noted it is unlikely that Apple is targeting TSMC's 12-inch facilities. For TSMC, having strategic investment from Apple will likely hurt the foundry's existing partnerships with Qualcomm and many other mobile processor developers.Globalfoundries will strive for a big customer like Apple at any cost, Chai believes. Globalfoundries is a relatively newcomer to the foundry industry and still needs to build up its customer portfolio.As for IBM's 12-inch fab, Chai pointed out that IBM has in recent years moved towards a fab-lite strategy. Besides, acquiring IBM's facility could allow Apple to gain access to IBM's advanced chip-making technologies, Chai said.Owning a fab will definitely give Apple greater control over its supply chain and help shorten time-to-market as a result of an integrated design and manufacturing approach, in addition to ensuring a steady supply of mobile chips during periods of high demand, Chai indicated. Nevertheless, these beneifts will only exist when the fab is able to produce advanced chips in commercial volumes.Apple will also need to brace itself for higher operating costs if the company decides to produce its mobile processors in-house, Chai pointed out. As the industry is about to enter the sub-20nm era, chipmakers are encountering technical and financial challenges. If Apple moves to operate a fab, the company will face considerable risks and uncertainty especially in the migration to 1Xnm process manufacturing, Chai said.In fact, many IDMs such as Renesas and STMicroelectronics have pursued a fab-lite strategy, Chai noted. Qualcomm, at least for now, would not want to run its own chip plant, Chai said.Chai also does not think Apple is going to buy a UMC fab. The Taiwan foundry's 12-inch manufacturing capability is not even ready to fabricate Apple's current A5 processors, Chai said.UMC is expected to move its 28nm process technology to commercial production as early as fourth-quarter 2013. In terms of process technology, UMC is already lagging behind TSMC, and even Globalfoundries and Samsung, Chai said.Rather than running a wafer plant, Apple should stay focused on its core mission and work with its foundry partner/s, Chai suggested. Companies with advanced manufacturing capabilities are the ideal partners for Apple, especially those which are now engaged in the development of EUV and 450mm manufacturing and will certainly be capable of making sub-10nm devices, Chai said.Chai commented that if Apple is returning to Samsung as the primary producer of A-series chips, it would make no sense for Apple to place 20nm chip orders with TSMC.Korea Economic Daily cited unnamed sources as saying in its July 15 report that despite the loss of 20nm chip orders from Apple, Samsung already signed a new deal with Apple to supply A9 chips that would be built on its 14nm FinFET process.A Digitimes report in June 24 cited industry sources as claiming that TSMC has struck an agreement with Apple to supply 20nm, 16nm and 10nm A-series chips, followed by more rumors suggesting Apple could be exploring possible deals with other foundry chipmakers.

Following speculation that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) already struck a deal with Apple to supply foundry services for the next A-series chips built using 20nm, 16nm and 10nm process nodes, more rumors have surfaced recently suggesting Apple is also looking at other options in addition to TSMC.A Digitimes report on June 24 cited industry sources as saying that TSMC and its IC design service partner Global UniChip had secured a three-year agreement with Apple to supply 20nm, 16nm and 10nm A-series chips. TSMC would start to produce A8 chips - made using 20nm process technology - in small volume as soon as July and substantially ramp up the output after December.And most recently, rumors circulated late last week suggesting Apple could be exploring possible deals with other foundry chipmakers. Globalfoundries and United Microelectronics (UMC) are both identified as Apple's potential new partners.SemiAccurate claimed in its July 12 report that UMC could play a part in Apple's efforts to have better control over its supply chain. Apple may make a huge investment in UMC, and buy into one of the Taiwan foundry's wafer plants.The SemiAccurate report is followed by CNET's story that indicated Apple is "kicking the tires" on a potential deal with Globalfoundries. CNET cited its own sources as saying that "Samsung's fab in Austin and GF's fab in New York could both ramp a similar product and GF could offset capacity that Samsung can't fulfill."The Korea Times reported on July 10 that Samsung's contract with Apple would be valid until the first half of 2014. However, another Korea media outlet The Korea Economic Daily cited industry sources as saying in its July 15 report that despite the loss of 20nm chip orders from Apple, Samsung already signed a new deal with Apple to supply A9 chips that would be built on its 14nm FinFET process.No matter the outcome, whether the new iOS devices would continue Apple's growth will still be fundamental, and only companies benefiting from Apple's continued momentum are the winners.

With more NAND flash memory chips designed into embedded applications, such as eMMC devices and solid-state drives (SSD), memory controller IC firms incapable of providing technologies for these storage solutions will either be acquired by their larger competitors, or eliminated from the market.The fast-growing market for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, has already hurt the traditional flash memory card and drive business. Suppliers of stand-alone NAND flash device controllers, which are mainly Taiwan-based, are being affected negatively.Taiwan-based suppliers of NAND flash device controller ICs including Alcor Micro, ASMedia Technology, Genesys Logic, JMicron Technology, Phison Electronics, Silicon Motion Technology, Skymedi, Solid State System (3S) and VIA Labs have long focused on mass-market USB flash drives and memory cards, and enjoyed a majority share of the stand-alone NAND flash device controller market segment. However, with SSDs, eMMC and other embedded storage devices seen as tomorrow's promising areas, the Taiwan players' less-complete and less-competitive technologies compared to their international peers such as SanDisk are now a major constraint to their business development.The NAND flash controller industry already went through a period of consolidation, when microSD and other small-size cards started to see growing adoption among consumer digital cameras and were first found in mobile phones. Manufacturing microSD cards requires COB (chip-on-board) packaging – identified previously as a technical problem facing several makers incapable of finding a backend partner.Meanwhile, due to the entry of upstream chip firms Toshiba and Samsung into the microSD card market, a number of memory module makers decided to purchase cards directly from their chip partners. Controller suppliers were then forced to seek cooperation with chip vendors to keep their business in the microSD card space.Phison, Silicon Motion and Skymedi, which have drawn strategic investments from vendors such as Samsung, Toshiba and Kingston Technology, have helped Taiwan-based suppliers as a group to control as high as 90% of the stand-alone NAND flash device controller market. Nonetheless, the segment has been stagnant as the transition to embedded storage solutions takes place.Samsung's disposal of Skymedi shares earlier in 2013 could signal some changes in chip vendors' strategies for their partnerships with memory controller companies.Sluggish growth in the flash drive and memory card market is propelling Taiwan-based NAND flash device controller companies to diversify their offerings to include solutions for non-memory products. Nevertheless, they will still be capable of fighting for a piece of the embedded NAND device controller pie.LSI and Marvell collectively hold a more than 50% share of the SSD controller market. The two companies are expected to put their ultimate focus on cloud computing applications, leaving the consumer electronics segment to their smaller peers.As for eMMC controllers, Taiwan-based firms could put their focus on China's white-box market rather than international brands such as Apple to avoid direct competition with NAND chip vendors. Alternatively, diversifying their base to industrial and other application-specific areas is another tactic for Taiwan-based NAND device controller suppliers.