Taiwan-based network device makers including Zyxel Group and Sercomm continue to see telecom customers engaged in inventory adjustments and remain cautious about their operations in the second half of this year, according to company sources.

Global top-5 brands, not including Apple, saw their combined notebook shipments slip over 20% on month in July because of the high comparison base in June and a deceleration in demand from the education procurement sector in Europe and North America, according to DIGITIMES Research's figures from July's notebook monthly update report.

South Korean industry sources revealed the new production plan for Apple's iPhone. In 2023, Apple plans to produce an additional 3.2 million iPhones. The assembly order distribution between the likes of Foxconn and Wistron was also revealed as well, which garnered the attention of the industry.

Bloomberg quoted sources saying that Foxconn is beginning the production of the iPhone 15 in its facility in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, with the delivery timeline only weeks after that of Foxconn's factories in China. Besides Foxconn, Pegatron and a Wistron plant acquired by Tata will join the ranks of assembling iPhone 15 in India.

Foxconn will reportedly make Apple's AirPods in India, the second Apple product to be made in the South Asian country, as the country is expected to become the world's largest wearable market by the end of the year.

Quanta Computer's automotive business is transitioning from investment cultivation to profit harvesting, according to the Taiwan-based ODM, which expects the business to account for a double-digit percentage of revenue next year.

Despite challenges including inflation, inventory destocking, and demand slowdown, many printed-circuit board (PCB)-related manufacturers remain optimistic about the medium- and long-term outlook of the industry. There are three major factors driving their overseas expansion towards Southeast Asia during the business downcycle.

Industrial PC (IPC) maker Getac said its customers are being cautious about their second-half prospects and that it is seeing poor order visibility in the second half of 2023.

Thanks to India's increasing local demand for mobile phones and government incentives, mobile phones made in India continued to grow in 2022, witnessing double-digit growth for the past eight years.

Contract electronics vendor Foxconn has a sizable share in the upstream AI GPU module and substrate markets of the AI server supply chain, according to company chairman Young Liu.

Compared to the impressive performance of its gaming notebooks and boards, Asus's server business tends to not receive much attention from the market with a revenue share in the low single digits. However, with AI servers trending, Asus has no intention of missing out. Furthermore, with its foundation in the PC sector, Asus is not concerned about chip supply.

Taiwan-based magnetic component company LinkCom Manufacturing held an earnings call on August 11. General manager Wilson Tan said the company is expanding its magnetic component and wireless charging units. The company will launch new products, increase product applications and scale up its global business simultaneously.

DIGITIMES Asia has unveiled the "2023 ASC 250 Rankings." In the post-pandemic era, the Russia-Ukraine war, and global inflation, more than half of the leading 10 companies are encountering a dip in their revenue growth rates. Notably, TSMC, the heavyweight champion of semiconductor foundry, leads the pack with an impressive revenue growth rate of 33.4%. However, within the top 20 companies, CATL stands out prominently, boasting a remarkable growth rate of 138%.

To meet robust customer demand for AI servers, Quanta Computer's board of directors recently greenlighted capacity expansions at its production bases in the US and Germany, which will drive up its capex for 2023 by 20-30% to NT$12-13 billion (US$376-407 million), according to company sources

The US government announced in mid-July 2023 that it will introduce a cybersecurity seal, dubbed the "US Cyber Trust Mark," for Internet of things (IoT) devices. The seal is intended to help consumers purchase trusted devices that are less vulnerable to hacking by labeling them as compliant with security standards. It is reported that the initiative will initially focus on home IoT devices and is expected to be launched in 2024.

Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT), a subsidiary of Foxconn Group, announced a capital injection to its Indian subsidiary, as Foxconn Group has been scaling up its Indian investments in mobile phones, semiconductors, and EV manufacturing.

India's surprising announcement to require license for imported notebooks and tablets raised confusion and concerns in the IT hardware industry. Hyundai is looking to launch more EV models in India to capitaize on the rising market.

Despite the generally pessimistic outlook for smartphone market demand growth in 2023, with high-end models becoming the preference for consumers, it has certainly brought a spark of warmth to a smartphone industry that's still going through an economic winter.

With the end of customer inventory adjustment and the gradual warming up of the tooling and network security equipment industries, embedded motherboard and industrial PC (IPC) vendor DFI Inc. believes that the overall business outlook in the second half of 2023 is not pessimistic.

Pegatron, which saw its notebook shipments increase 24% sequentially in the second quarter, expects to post flat or slight shipment growth in the third quarter.

Global notebook shipments, not including detachable models, performed stronger than DIGITIMES Research initially expected in the second quarter of 2023, up 20.9% sequentially and down only 5.5% on year, shrinking dramatically from those of the past several quarters. Still, the volumes are only expected to stay flat in the third quarter and dip a single-digit percentage in the fourth quarter, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest figures from the notebooks report database.

ODMs including Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT), Wiwynn, and Giga Computing have experienced delays in fulfilling AI server orders due to the ongoing GPU shortage at Nvidia, according to industry sources..

For most of the electronics industry, 2Q23 is at the bottom. However, conductive paste and thick film conductive material manufacturer Ample is part of the passive component supply chain upstream. Therefore, it hit rock bottom early in 1Q23 and is now seeing a continued recovery in its second and third-quarter profits.

India's surprising move to require licenses for imported computers and servers brings uncertainties to vendors selling devices in the country. The Indian government reportedly refused to grant the second postponement to implementing the import restriction.

LGD (LG Display) has reportedly purchased Micro LED patents from a Taiwanese company. Most are on "transfer printing process patents," a core technology of Micro LED. It's speculated that LGD will use the transfer printing process with Micro LED backplanes to improve profitability. This technology is also expected to be used in Apple Watches in the future.