Taiwan’s smartphone makers continued to feel the pinch after local market shipments in the third quarter fell more than 3 percent from a year earlier, US-based International Data Corp (IDC) said on Thursday.
Weakening demand resulting from consumers postponing replacing their phones led to Taiwan’s smartphone shipments falling 3.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.26 million units in the July-September period. This drop follows a 4.6 percent year-on-year decline in the second quarter, when shipments stood at 1.05 million units, IDC said in a statement.
However, the average selling price of smartphones in the third quarter rose 3.3 percent from a year earlier, indicating that Taiwanese smartphone manufacturers were keen to focus on producing high and medium-end devices with a higher price tag to strengthen their competitive edge in the market, IDC said.
Photo: CNA
In the third quarter, shipments of electronic wearable devices in Taiwan totaled 1.25 million units, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier, with shipments of smartwatches growing 10.2 percent from a year earlier to 300,000, it said.
Earbud shipments in Taiwan fell 2.9 percent to 770,000 units in the third quarter from a year earlier, with shipments of devices using true wireless stereo technology accounting for 92.1 percent of total earbud shipments.
The earbud segment was affected by falling consumer consumption, while demand for earwear related to smartphones also weakened, dealing a blow to the entire earbud industry, IDC said.
The smartphone market in Taiwan would continue to weaken in the wake of unfavorable economic conditions and the slow replacement of devices by consumers, with shipments next year expected to fall 2.3 percent year-on-year to 4.86 million units, IDC Taiwan associate analyst Joanne Chiang (江靖婷) said.
Due to changing foreign exchange rates, increasing costs and a continued focus on mid-range and high-end products, the average selling price is expected to grow 2.2 percent next year, she said.
Chiang also predicted shipments of wearable devices in Taiwan would grow 1.1 percent to 3.84 million units next year, with smartwatch shipments expected to rise 4.7 percent from a year earlier to 950,000 units next year.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
RSS