News You Can Use – 4.1.19 – 4.5.19

As the leading independent distributor of electronic components, Smith tracks open-market activity and conditions as an early indicator of trends and supply chain disruptions. Industry news provides important and time-sensitive information when strategically procuring components, planning for NPIs, or making any critical decisions in the supply chain.

We’ve curated a selection of this week’s industry articles that we feel can help customers gain relevant, useful knowledge and prepare for any supply chain requirements.

Foldable Smartphones Will Continue to Remain Expensive Due to Shortage of Key Components, Such as Hinges

Foldable smartphones, predicted to be one of the newest toys in the industry, are expected to see delayed deliveries due to shortages of key components, including hinges and OLED displays. The hinges used in a foldable phone are higher quality than those used in laptops, and mass production isn’t expected to begin before 2020. Currently, only Huawei and Royole have revealed their foldable handset models. Other manufacturers are said to be planning releases later this year or next. Read More.

Osram adjusts its annual forecast due to a weak market

Citing a weak market, OSRAM has lowered its forecast for fiscal year 2019. The global conglomerate points to weakness in the automotive, general lighting, and mobile device markets as its principal reasons for lowering the forecast. Early reports predict a 15% decline in 2Q19 revenue compared to the previous year. This has led to significant inventory buildup, particularly in China, where geopolitical uncertainties continue to impact demand negatively. Read More.

Intel’s latest Xeon server processors are now generally available

Second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors were introduced this week and are now readily available to the major system builders. The new Cascade Lake chips represent a significant architectural change compared to the previous Skylake models and are capable of handling increased workloads as AI research continues to grow. Intel still dominates the CPU market, but the company is expected to lose some market share to AMD, as Intel has faced manufacturing delays and an increase in competition from the longtime rival. Read More. 

5G Needs More Memory to Compute

5G technology is going to require more memory components and increase demand more than ever before. The jump from 4G to 5G will shift devices from 6 GB to over 8 GB of memory and from 256 GB to 512 GB of storage, respectively. The overall goal of 5G technology is for devices to operate at faster speeds, high capacity, and low latency. These objectives are causing the emergence of new memory technology to accommodate these needs. TCAM (ternary content-addressable memory) and RRAM-based TCAM circuits are a few alternatives that have been mentioned. For the immediate future, though, 5G technology will mainly support legacy memory equipment. Smartphones, sensors, smart cars, and wearable devices will all be a part of the 5G network. Read More. 

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