The shipments of smartphone AP (application processors) in China will reportedly not see any changes sequentially in the first quarter of this year. This flat trend arrives despite the market seeing a significant rise of 57 percent back in 2020.
According to a DigiTimes report, the smartphone AP shipments, which includes those for mobile exports as well, will stagnate in the first quarter of 2021. Furthermore, the former Huawei budget smartphone unit, Honor, has also started raising its chip inventory, with other brands also pushing to raise their orders to also maintain their high inventory levels as well. At the moment, the 8 inch and 12 inch foundaries are packed with orders and are running at full capacity due to smartphone makers driving up orders.
The report also added that about 211.6 million smartphone APs were shipped to Chinese companies in the fourth quarter of last year. This marked a rise of 9.9 percent quarter on quarter and 7.7 percent year on year. The market performed better than expected with robust shipments, with brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo seeking to expand their market share in the domestic market as the current market leader struggles after US sanctions.
Notably, MediaTek was one of the top suppliers of smartphone APs in China, accounting for 42.5 percent of all shipments during the final quarter of last year. The chipmaker was followed by Qualcomm that had a market share of 41.5 percent and Huawei’s HiSilicon with a 9.5 percent share. DigiTimes estimates that MediaTek will remain the market leader in the first quarter, while Qualcomm will remain will be close behind.
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