The next generation of Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads may not be as innovative as previous models in light of intensified competition from other smartphone makers, an analyst at Swiss brokerage house UBS Securities said yesterday.
Arthur Hsieh (謝宗文), chief electronics hardware analyst at UBS, said at a media briefing that he believes Apple’s product road map in the near future would be “less innovative,” while its rivals, such as Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea, are set to launch more competitive products.
He said Samsung unveiled a flexible display at the Consumer Electronics Show in the US earlier this month, and it would be worth watching whether Samsung would launch new smartphones or tablets using the advanced technology in the second half of the year.
Hsieh said competition among electronics companies is expected to intensify in the third quarter, possibly triggering a price war.
In the Apple supply chain in Taiwan, the outlook is good for touchscreen suppliers in view of improving yields and for optical lens makers that have moved toward high-end applications, he said.
In addition, a shortening product cycle for smartphone makers is likely to open a window of opportunity for Taiwanese brand companies, which will have a “fairly good chance” in such a diversified mobile market if they step up their marketing efforts, he said.
US bank Citigroup Inc said in a note earlier this week that Apple was unlikely to see growth in the high-end smartphone segment this year due to the weakness of its iPhone 5.
The product’s 4-inch display may have failed to satisfy most premium consumers’ preference for screens larger than 4.7 inches, Citigroup said.
The bank said Apple was expected to launch a 4-inch iPhone 5S and a 4-inch low-end iPhone in July this year, but predicted that the iPhone 5S would likely look similar to the iPhone 5, leading to weak demand for the updated model.
Citigroup forecast that Samsung would snatch 70 to 80 percent of the smartphone market growth opportunity left by Apple’s void, while second-tier brands, including Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電), could grow their share by 25 percent to 40 percent on an aggregated basis.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
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