Apple Inc reclaimed the top spot in China after iPhone shipments jumped 28 percent year-on-year during the holiday quarter despite a memorychip shortage, according to Counterpoint Research.
The iPhone 17 series of devices drew consumers, with Apple’s handsets accounting for one in every five shipments in the December quarter, the research firm estimated. That growth came at the expense of Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米), both of which experienced double-digit percentage declines. Overall, shipments in the world’s largest smartphone arena fell 1.6 percent from a year earlier during the final quarter of last year.
From Micron Technology Inc to Xiaomi, a growing number of companies are warning about the uncertain impact from a growing deficit of the semiconductors used to store data on devices. That shortage, which arose after memory makers devoted more of their capacity to high-end memory for Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence chips, is driving prices higher while squeezing undersupplied smaller players.
Photo: Reuters
“Looking ahead, memory prices are expected to rise further, increasing by 40 percent to 50 percent in Q1 2026, followed by an additional increase of around 20 percent in Q2 2026,” Counterpoint analysts said. “Smartphone OEMs are expected to optimize their product portfolios, with a particular focus on scaling back low-end models to preserve margins.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) highlighted the uneven impact of the memory crunch last week, saying high-end smartphones remained largely unaffected. Apple, whose entire lineup resides in the upper tiers of the market, is showing greatest resilience. A new round of Chinese consumer subsidies is helping alleviate cost pressures on manufacturers, Counterpoint said.
For the calendar year, Apple came in slightly behind Huawei at the top of China’s shipments ranking, with each taking roughly a 17 percent market share. Apple’s shipments last year climbed 7.5 percent year-on-year. One blemish on its record was the novel iPhone Air, which launched later in China than elsewhere and sold poorly.
“The iPhone Air underperformed,” Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam (林科宇) said. “The late launch and trade-offs between thinness and the feature set resulted in a slow start.”
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
RSS