China’s shipments of APs for smartphones are predicted to increase 17% quarter-on-quarter during the second quarter of 2018, up to 173.8 million units, according to Digitimes Research. Shipments declined 29% quarter-on-quarter during the first three months of 2018, due to vendor inventory adjustments following lower-than-expect sales of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2017, though this did represent a 17% growth compared to the same period in the previous year. Second-quarter shipments are estimated to decline 2.2% year-on-year.
MediaTek’s shipments of smartphone APs are predicted to grow 33.7% quarter-on-quarter, thanks to burgeoning sales of its new Helio P series, which incorporates AI processing technology. Meanwhile, Digitimes Research predicts that Qualcomm will begin to lose share to rivals in Taiwan and China due to its less flexible pricing strategy.
