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The prices of NOR Flash will go up sequentially by at least 5% on average for every quarter in 2017 as its market benefits from the abundant releases of smartphones featuring AMOLED display during the year, TrendForce reports. Besides the general adoption of AMOLED in the smartphone market, the expansion in the production of ICs for Touch with Display Driver Integration (TDDI) is driving the need for NOR Flash as well. From the supply side, major manufacturers such as Micron and GigaDevice have reduced their NOR Flash production. Tight supply and rising demand therefore will keep prices of NOR Flash on an uptrend to the end of this year.
TrendForce’s latest analysis on China’s semiconductor sector reveals that the country’s domestic IC manufacturers are affecting the movement of industry talents worldwide as they continue to aggressively headhunt for senior managers and engineers. The competition for human resource is becoming fiercer and will reach a critical point this year as numerous new fabs in China are scheduled to start production in the second half of 2018.
The growing user base of smart handheld devices and the expansion of Internet-based services for these devices have generated enormous demand for cloud computing and cloud storage businesses in the recent period. Correspondingly, the usage of data centers are also on the rise worldwide. Taking account of these trends, the latest server market analysis by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, estimates an annual global shipment growth of about 3.8% for 2017.
Intel on March 13 announced that the company will purchase Mobileye, a global provider of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). This deal is worth US$15.3 billion and is another indication that major semiconductor manufacturers are aggressively jockeying for a favorable position in the fast growing automotive electronics market. TrendForce states that after the merger, Intel will be able to combine its hardware products such as high-performance computing chips and IoT solutions with Mobileye’s image processing algorithms for autonomous driving systems. The deal gives Intel’s the potential to develop an autonomous driving solution that incorporates cloud computing. Furthermore, the deal strengthens Intel’s collaboration with BMW to bring self-driving cars to the market in 2021, when first wave of sales for such vehicles is anticipated to take place in major auto markets worldwide.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that client-grade SSDs of mainstream capacities continue to see rising contract prices in the PC-OEM market during this first quarter. On average, contract prices of MLC-based client-grade SSDs are projected to go up by 12~16% compared with the fourth quarter of last year, while prices of TLC-based products are expected to increase by 10~16% sequentially. Looking ahead to the second quarter, end device sales are anticipated to be relatively flat. Furthermore, PC-OEMs are reaching their limits on SSD costs. While the average prices of mainstream client-grade SSDs will keep climbing, the increase in the second quarter will likely be more moderate.
