Taiwanese smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc. and American rival Qualcomm Inc. felt the sting of China’s COVID-19 lockdowns as their smartphone IC shipments fell in China in April, according to market information advisory firm CINNO Research.
In a statement released earlier this week, CINNO Research, which was founded by industry professionals from Taiwan and China, said the strict COVID-19 restrictions in several major cities such as Shanghai, Kunshan and Suzhou dampened demand for smartphones in China.
Weaker demand for smartphones powered by the Android operating system in China in particular also took a toll on IC shipments within the country, CINNO Research said.
As a result, system on chips (SoC) used in smartphone production fell to about 17.60 million units in China in April, down 21.6 percent from a year earlier and also down 12.1 percent from a month earlier, CINNO Research said.
MediaTek outperformed the overall market and remained the largest smartphone IC provider in the Chinese market in April, but still saw its smartphone SoC shipments in China fall 9 percent from a year earlier to about 7.3 million units, CINNO Research said
MediaTek’s April shipments were also down 11.7 percent from March, according to CINNO Research.
Qualcomm, the second largest smartphone IC vendor in China, took a bigger hit, with smartphone SoC shipments falling 22.5 percent from a year earlier and 14.4 percent from the previous month to 6.2 million units in April, the advisory firm said.
Apple Inc. was more resilient as its iPhone 13 series, which is powered by its own iOS system, still attracted solid buying in China in April.
It shipped about 3 million SoCs to China in April, down only 2.2 percent month-on-month and 3.5 percent year-on-year, according to the market information company.
MediaTek, Qualcomm and Apple had a combined share of 94.2 percent of China’s smartphone chip market during the month, up 1 percentage point from March and up 9 percentage points from a year earlier.
China-based HiSilicon Technologies Co., a fabless semiconductor subsidiary of Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei Technologies Co., came in fourth in April with shipments of 500,000 smartphone chips in China, down 34.3 percent from a month earlier and down 83.1 percent from a year earlier, CINNO Research said.
Unisoc (Shanghai) Technologies Co. was the fifth largest smartphone IC supplier after shipping about 400,000 units, falling 12.2 percent from a month earlier but soaring 606.5 percent from a year earlier, CINNO Research added.
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting global demand, CINNO Research said, geopolitical tensions and a slowdown in the world economy are expected to continue to affect smartphone demand.
It said smartphone brands in the Android camp are expected to be hurt more by weakening demand than Apple.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel