According to a new report from DigiTimes, android smartphone manufacturers are slowing down orders for UFS chips (universal flash storage) for their high end flagship offerings.
The reason for holding back on their demands is due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The report states various reasons like fall in consumer spending on non essential goods, along with an overall decline of the smartphone market. Industry sources claimed that the demand for UFS chips is not expected to pick up at least until the final quarter of 2020. This period is when OEMs will wor on launching their next iteration of flagship handsets for 2021.
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Back in July, a steep decline was observed in the Chinese 5G smartphone market. This was followed by a decrease in demand for UFS chips from vendors. In China, shipments dropped by 20.5 percent year on year falling to only 13.91 million units being shipped in July. Although, 5G smartphones accounted for 44.2 of the total sales since January.
During this period, only a total of nine 5G handsets were launched in China, which was all available for less than 2,000 Yuan (roughly 292 US Dollars) and targeted the mid to budget segments in the market. As an alternative to UFS chips, the Chinese market is now opting for eMMC chips for their mid range smartphones. Although, high end premium flagship from OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi, others would still feature the UFS chips.
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