Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative impact on the global economy, several emergent trends, such as WFH, distance education, rising 5G smartphone penetration, and strong component demand from telecom infrastructure build-out, have resulted in a bullish semiconductor market against economic headwinds, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Global foundry revenue is projected to undergo a 23.8% increase YoY in 2020, the highest percentage in 10 years.
Demand for end-devices saw a continued growth due to the rise of the stay-at-home economy brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2Q20, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. As U.S. sanctions against shipping chips manufactured with U.S. equipment and technologies to Huawei took effect on September 15, various OSAT companies rushed to make deliveries prior to the September 15 deadline. Driven by this wave of urgent orders, the top 10 largest OSAT companies’ quarterly revenue reached US$6.759 billion in 3Q20, a 12.9% increase YoY.
Owing to the rise of the stay-at-home economy brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, yearly Apple MacBook shipment for 2020 is expected to reach 15.5 million units, a 23.1% increase YoY, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Thanks to the November 11 release of the new Mac models and the Apple Silicon M1 processor, MacBook shipment is expected to set a record high in 2021 by reaching 17.1 million units and potentially growing by more than 10% YoY.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated paradigm shifts in work, education, and living for people around the world since the early part of 2020, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. The proliferation of smart handheld devices has led to strong and consistent growth in the demand for cloud storage and computing. Furthermore, the market penetration of cloud services has risen sharply as enterprises undertake digital transformation projects. On the side of general consumers, there have been changes in online spending habits and advances in business models for e-commerce. At the same time, a new generation of social media platforms has risen. Thanks to these developments, cloud service providers (CSPs) are able to collect huge amounts of consumer data for developing a more diverse range of businesses. As such, TrendForce’s latest survey of the global server market indicates that hyperscale servers already account for almost 40% of the total demand in 4Q20, and the number of hyperscale data centers is now three times of that in the 2012-2014 period.
Since the introduction of Sony’s large-sized modular Micro LED display in 2017, other companies, including Samsung and LG, have successively made advances in Micro LED development, in turn generating much buzz for the technology’s potential in the large-sized display market, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Emissive Micro LED TVs are expected to arrive on the market between 2021 and 2022. Even so, many technological and cost-related challenges are yet to be solved, meaning Micro LED TVs will remain ultra-high-end luxury products at least during the technology’s initial stage of commercialization.
