As the COVID-19 pandemic caused flagship smartphones to turn in lower-than-expected sales performances in 1H20, the market share of AMOLED phones fell short of forecasts made in early 2020, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. The market share of AMOLED phones for 2020 is expected to reach 33%, a 2% increase YoY, thanks to the release of Apple’s new iPhone 12 models in 2H20. LTPS LCD smartphones are likewise undergoing sluggish demand this year; their market share is projected to reach 38%, a 2% decrease YoY. On the other hand, the majority of smartphone market demand has reemerged for the entry-level and mid-range segments, thereby lending support to the demand for a-Si LCD smartphones, some of which are now in short supply. The market share of smartphones with a-Si displays is estimated to reach 29% this year, remaining relatively unchanged from 2019.
Global monitor shipment is projected to grow by 5.4% YoY this year owing to strong shipment performances against the downtrend by monitor brands that primarily focus on the consumer markets; as of 2020, these brands have experienced three consecutive years of YoY shipment growth, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. This strong shipment performance can be attributed to several pandemic-related factors, such as the rise of WFH and distance education as well as increasing monitor demand from the stay-at-home economy, and also to persistent purchasing momentum in the North American consumer markets.
As the current mainstream solution for PC DRAM and server DRAM, both of which share the same roots in IC design, DDR4 reached a penetration rate of more than 90% in each of the above two categories in 3Q20, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. As well, JEDEC finalized the definition of next-generation DDR5 memory in September 2019. Significant increases in the penetration rate of DDR5 PC DRAM is not expected to take place until 2022 at the earliest.
On October 27, AMD announced that it had reached an agreement with leading FPGA manufacturer Xilinx to acquire the latter for US$35 billion. Should the acquisition proceed as planned, AMD will greatly increase its influence across industries such as 5G, data center, ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems), and industrial automation, in turn overtaking MediaTek in revenue and becoming the fourth largest IC design company behind third-place Nvidia, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Furthermore, as AMD and Xilinx are both major clients of TSMC, AMD will command increased leverage when negotiating for TSMC’s foundry services following the Xilinx acquisition.
The total worldwide shipments of branded SSDs bound for the channel (retail) market in 2019 reached 131 million units, showing an increase of almost 60% from 2018, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. This result also indicated a further and substantial growth in SSD adoption. Kingston, ADATA, and Tigo remained first, second, and third place respectively in the global ranking of branded SSD module makers (excluding NAND Flash suppliers) by shipment market share for retail SSDs.
