Lenovo released its financial report for the first quarter of the 2023/24 fiscal year (1QFY23/24) ending on June 30th. It saw revenue of US$12.9 billion, marking a decrease of 24% YoY, and the operating profit was US$390 million, reflecting a decline of 50% YoY.
India saw another fall in PC shipments as the demand in the commercial segment remained weak and sluggish. India may witness a recovery in PC demand due to improving consumer sentiment and a PC import restriction expected on November 1.
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.
Microcontroller unit (MCU) supplier Generalplus Technology continues to step up its deployment in non-Chinese markets and diversify its target applications, but is still bracing for gross margin pressure in the second half of this year due to falling prices, according to company president Kevin Chia.
The price competition on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors is imminent, but Bosch will not be the first batch of players to lower prices, according to Greg Huang, regional sales manager at Bosch Sensortec, a fully-owned subsidiary of Bosch.
Quanta Computer expects its future operation and profitability to be majorly driven by the AI business and in addition to servers and automotive AI chips, the company has also been keen on developing medical solutions and formed technology transfer collaborations with hospitals in Taiwan to develop an AI electrocardiography (ECG) platform.
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.
Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor (TAS, formerly Opto Tech) has secured sensor component orders for a US customer's wearable slated for launch in 2024, with volume production set to begin as early as end-2023, according to industry sources.
According to Huawei's latest earnings report for the first half of 2023, the US-sanctioned telecom equipment giant reported sales of CNY310.9 billion, up 3.1% from a year ago, with net income reaching CNY46.63, a 209% growth year-on-year.
Chinese automakers intend to alter the local market ecology in order to increase the turnover rate of auto sales, which will put a strain on the manufacturing flexibility and inventory management capacities of related industry supply chains, according to Robert Liu, president of automotive cooling fan specialist Yen Sun Technology.
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.
NAND flash prices may remain at rock bottom for longer than anticipated, due to a lack of killer applications to clear stockpiles, according to industry sources.
Foxconn has seen multi-fold growth in revenue, employee numbers, and investment since its expansion into India in 2005, says the company's chairman, Young Liu. While primarily focused on information and communications technology (ICT) assembly, the company is also planning to set up key consumer electronics component assembly lines in the country, and there may even be EV component lines.
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.
Given the rising uncertainty in end-market demand, many Taiwanese IC design companies are bracing for a particularly weak second half of 2023, according to industry sources.
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.
According to Raydium Semiconductor's chairman, Huang Yu-Kuo, Q1 this year marked the lowest point in operations, and recovery is noticeable in Q2. The main growth drivers are medium- and small-sized display driver ICs (DDI), and particularly OLED DDIs. Despite Q3 being traditionally the peak season, clients have only given conservative estimates of order numbers.
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.
India, expected to be the largest wearable market in 2023, saw another spike in wearable device shipment growth. Local players remained dominant in India, and smartwatches and earwear continued their growth trend.
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.
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.
A substantial recovery in PC demand is unlikely to take place until 2024, according to Parade Technologies, which specializes in high-speed transmission chips. Parade chairman Ji Zhao anticipates the company's revenue will continue to increase in the third quarter, driven by growth from high-speed transmission products.
Compal Electronics saw its July revenue increase about 4% sequentially, while revenue at fellow ODM companies Quanta Computer, Wistron and Inventec decreased 3.6%, 16.5% and 12.3%, respectively, on month.
Zheng Jiong (ZJ), senior director of client customer engineering for Intel China's client computing group (CCG), and his team of engineers make the one-hour journey across Shanghai every week to meet with their Lenovo counterparts. They make a beeline for the new Advanced System Innovation Lab, which is located deep within the Lenovo offices. According to Intel, engineers from both companies work together to solve some of the world's most challenging hardware and software issues, including those that pave the way for lighter, sleeker, and more powerful laptops that consumers and businesses rely on daily.
Due to strong educational demand and successful strategies of inventory clearing, notebook PCs (not including models which can separate the display and the keyboards) enjoyed a better-than-expected shipment performance of 20.9% quarter-on-quarter in 2Q23, according to DIGITIMES Research.