Taiwan-based backend houses including KYEC and Chipbond expect to see stable growth in demand for baseband chips and LCD driver ICs for Apple iPhone.
Apple's "friendly" pricing for the entry-level iPhone 11 and reduced prices for iPhone 8 and iPhone XR may stimulate sales, and in turn push up demand for 4G baseband chips and driver ICs for iPhones, benefiting KYEC and Chipbond, according to industry observers.
The observers said Intel's shipments of 4G baseband chips, whether SMARTi 6 and 7 or the new SMARTi 8, have stayed stable, benefiting backend partners including KYEC. This is despite smartphone vendors offering high price/performance ratios or adopting the "budget prices for high specs" strategy, which will challenge the ability of chipmakers to adjust their 4G chip solutions.
Apple is reportedly to adopt OLED screen for all its new iPhones for 2020, but until then, Taiwan supply chain makers believe that LCD iPhone models with friendlier pricing could maintain steady sales momentum. This will allow Chipbond to continue gaining from offering COF packaging services for iPhone LCD driver ICs, the sources continued.
Demand for 5G smartphones is not expected to explode until mmWave becomes the mainstream frequency band, and therefore chipmakers and smartphone vendors still adopt almost the same marketing strategy in the era of 5G sub-6GHz as adopted in the 4G era, the sources commented.
Article translated by Willis Ke
