Apple is expected to adopt more integrated passive devices for its new products, boosting businesses at its manufacturing partners TSMC and Amkor. Macronix, reportedly a supplier for Nintendo's upcoming Switch console series, is stepping up shipments of its ROM memory chips. Taiwan's driver IC vendors expect strong results for third-quarter 2021, thanks to robust pricing and tight supply from their foundry partners.

Following the 5G commercial launch, 5G handsets have experienced a surge in shipments since 2020, and China is the foremost market in terms of volume, keeping other countries at bay.

Intel has made aggressive moves trying to retake leadership in the foundry sector. If it is able to meet its schedule of technology advancements, Intel could close the gap against TSMC in five years. Conservative outlook from some of the big-name tech firms is not preventing Taiwanese ODMs from seeing strong server orders from datacenter clients. Monika Mikac, CBO of Barcelona-based QEV Technologies, and former COO of Croatian EV startup Rimac Automobili. Mikac, who will speak at the upcoming Asia Venturing (II): Tech-driven Mobility event, told Digitimes in a recent interview about developing e-bus platforms for emerging markets.

The tide of working from home has dramatically boosted the PC industry. The notebook industry has experienced rebounds from their past moderate years. Handset vendors instead seem to be drained of creativity, and it may not be easy for them to see a repeat of the prosperity in 2008-2018. Global shipments in 2021 are projected at 1.32 billion units, a moderate rise of 6.4% year-on-year.

Taiwan makers' TV shipments reached 7.16 million units in the second quarter of 2021, up 14.3% sequentially, as related makers had strengthened their component procurement via overbooking.

EV development is fast acclerating. Jack Cheng, CEO of the Foxconn-led MIH Alliance, an open platofrm for EV development, believes the EV market may reach its sweet spot in 2025-2026. In the semiconductor sector, MediaTek has raised its outlook for for 2021, expecting its revenues to grow 45% this year. In China, Unisoc is seeing a sharp rise in adoption of its smartphone APs by Chinese phone vendors.

Unisoc will see shipments of its smartphone application processors for use by China-based handset companies climb 152% on year to 68.2 million units in 2021, enabling it to unseat HiSilicon as the third largest smartphone AP supplier, according to Digitimes Research.

Given the ballpark yearly volume of about 200 million units for the notebook market, estimated worldwide shipment of 238 million units in 2021 outperforming 2020 by 19% is a rarely seen booming record for laptop. According to DIGITIMES Research's survey, notebook shipments reached 57.5 million units in first quarter of 2021, and 60 million units in the second quarter, and they will arrive at 62 million units in the third quarter, but will relapse to 58.1 million units in the final quarter.

Foxconn is stepping up its effort in the semiconductor industry and began installing equipment for packaging high-end ICs at plants in China, while Chromebook shipments will experience a major drop, due to weakening demand from the end market. Seeing demand for memory products is still rising, Macronix is planning to expand its 12-inch fab by investing NT$41.5 billion.

Some 38% of semiconductor market share is contributed by computing products, and around 32% from communication products. Notebooks, desktops and servers are major categories of computing products, with notebooks being the biggest of them all. Getting a good grip on notebook industry trends can give a good grasp of the bigger picture about the business climate of the computing sectors.

Texas Instrutments has given a less optimistic outlook for the third quarter of 2021, but industry sources have claimed that TI still sees prolonged lead times. TSMC has disclosed it is in early talks with clients about the feasibility of constructing a fab in Germany, and industry observers say such a fab could be a boost to Europe's car supply chain. DIGITIMES Asia president Colley Hwang has just published the first of his latest series of analysis of the global IT supply chain.

Although Europe's four major telecom operators - Vodafone, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefonica - had signed memorandum of understanding on the implementation of O-RAN based networks in Europe in early 2021, Rakuten Mobile's ongoing operating losses have put uncertainty to O-RAN's future.

After the peak of component crunch in the second quarter along with insufficient inventory in the third quarter, stress of stagnant deliverables on the highway seems to have been relieved. A consensus of the supply chain is to let the manufacturers breathe. The fourth quarter is in line with the traditional off-season, and the days should be easier. From foundries to IC design houses, Taiwanese manufacturers are in the limelight now. DIGITIMES Asia has noted in its reports that the foundry sector is now a seller's market with strong demand to last in end of 2022. Such messages are based on dynamic changes in demand-supply status of IT industry from the most upstream of the supply chain. Component shortages and component cannibalization require long-term rolling tracking. DIGITIMES Asia has been making dynamic adjustments to its views in line with rolling forecasts.

TSMC is evaluating the feasibility of building more fabs overseas fabs, including Germany, according to the foundry house's chairman. Strong demand and tight capacity are sending foundry quotes rising. UMC is mulling raising service fees further by 10-15% in first-quarter 2022 for 40nm process. MIH CEO Jack Cheng believes the Foxconn-led open platofrm for EV development is revolutionzing the car industry.

China's top-3 OSAT providers - Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), Tongfu Microelectronics and Huatian Technology - are expected to see their combined revenue surge over 20% on year in 2021, according to Digitimes Research.