Samsung Electronics reportedly is reconsidering adopting vapor chambers for its new smartphones for 2022, which could benefit cooling solution providers' sales, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Samsung was the earliest adopter of vapor chambers in smartphones, with other first-tier smartphone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo following suit later, the sources noted.
However, smartphone brand vendors turned conservative about releasing smartphones with vapor chambers in 2020, due to a significant deceleration in 5G deployments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the sources said.
As a result, most cooling solution providers have seen their revenues from handsets only account for less than 10% of their overall amounts in 2020 and first-quarter 2021. Auras had 4% in the first quarter of 2021, while Nidec Chaun-Choung Technology (CCI) had 7% in the first quarter of 2021 and 5% in 2020, the sources pointed out.
Chinese smartphone brands are the keenest adopting vapor chambers at the moment. Competition from Chinese cooling solution providers are fierce in terms of pricing but Taiwanese suppliers still have an advantage in quality, the sources said.
In response to the speuclation that Samsung may reactivate the development of smartphones with vapor chambers, several Taiwanese suppliers have already started preparing for potential orders, the sources added.
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
