The semiconductor sector is expected to benefit from the growth of wearable devices in the next few years, SinoPac Securities Investment Service (永豐投顧) said in a report on Tuesday.
Wearable devices are electronic gadgets that combine computing technology and built-in mobile Internet access with embedded sensors that can respond to the wearer’s movements.
As a result, the availability of various sensors will trigger demand of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), thereby boosting the proportion of semiconductor components in such devices, SinoPac said.
In October last year, Gartner Inc said MEMS sensors and microcontroller units such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, electronic compasses and pressure sensors would become popular in mobile devices over the next few years, making them one of the major drivers of the global semiconductor industry.
While wearable devices have yet to mature or become a trend, analysts say more smart bracelets, watches and other products are likely to emerge in the next two years to drive growth in the wearable device segment, following in the footsteps of Google Glass, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch and Nike’s FuelBand bracelet.
The Industrial Economics and Knowledge Research Center (IEK) has predicted the global market value of wearable devices could reach US$5.5 billion this year, up 83.3 percent from last year.
The figure is estimated to increase 72.7 percent to US$9.5 billion next year and expand another 68.4 percent to US$16 billion in 2016, the Taiwan-based researcher said. By 2018, the global market value of wearable devices is estimated to reach US$35 billion, it said.
Against this backdrop, the proportion of semiconductor components used in wearable devices is estimated to hit 18.3 percent in 2018 from 16.8 percent this year, SinoPac said in the report, citing IEK’s forecast.
The global market value of semiconductor components used in wearable devices will also expand at an annual composite growth rate of 53.2 percent to US$6.41 billion in 2018 from US$920 million this year, the report said.
SinoPac said companies in Taiwan’s semiconductor sector such as wafer foundries and chip packagers were likely to secure outsourcing orders from global integrated device manufacturers in the international MEMS supply chain.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Avanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), the world’s largest chip packaging and testing company, IC testing service provider King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電) and memorychip testing service firm Lingsen Precision Industries Ltd (菱生) are likely to enjoy technological and cost advantages over their domestic peers in the coming years, SinoPac said.
Shares of TSMC closed out the year at NT$105.50 on Tuesday, up 8.76 percent for the whole of last year, while ASE finished the year up 9.92 percent at NT$27.7, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data. King Yuan rose 10.54 percent over the last 12 months at NT$20.45 and Lingsen moved up 6.6 percent to NT$16.15, the exchange’s data showed.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
RSS