Xiaomi, OPPO and other Chinese smartphone manufacturers increase 4G chip orders

Industry insiders revealed that Taiwan's IC design companies have recently seen strong growth in 4G mobile chip orders from their mainland China mobile phone customers, with orders coming in much faster than for 5G chips.

According to digitimes, industry insiders said that the prices of 4G mobile chips have been rising recently and are expected to rebound in the short term.

"In the second half of 2021, the supply of 4G mobile chips will lag behind demand, and chip suppliers' 4G smartphone inventories will be relatively low compared to 5G smartphones," said an industry insider.

Industry insiders further pointed out that Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo have increased their chip purchases for 4G smartphones launched in emerging markets since the third quarter, because they realized that profits in the 5G smartphone field have shrunk, competition has become increasingly fierce, and has dragged down the prices of related mobile chips. In addition, the above-mentioned mainland Chinese smartphone manufacturers also have excess 5G chip inventory, mainly due to sluggish sales in the mainland Chinese market in the first half of this year.

"It is expected that the profits of 4G smartphone orders of Taiwan-based IC design companies such as MediaTek, Novatek, Siliconware Precision, Shengjia and Tongjia will exceed the profits of 5G smartphone orders in the second half of this year," the industry insider added.