TSMC controls 70% of global production of chips for smartphones

Counterpoint Technology Market Research company released the results of the study of the global market of microchips for cellular devices in the first quarter of this year.Image source: pixabay.comThe presented statistics takes into account the production of \"systems on a chip\" (SoC), discrete application processors and individual modems.
Different manufacturing technologies are considered.Shipments of the listed products from January to March inclusive decreased year over year by 5%.
This can be explained by the seasonal factor, the current geopolitical situation and oversupply in the last quarter of 2021.Source image: Counterpoint Technology Market ResearchBut if we consider the industry in monetary terms, growth in annual terms was 23%.
This significant increase is due to an increase in the share of more expensive products with 5G mobile communications support.Approximately 69.9% of all smartphone chips produced during the quarter came from the lines of TSMC.
Another 30% was the share of Samsung.
All other market players together control only 0.1%.
In the segment of products manufactured by advanced technology with 4 and 5 nanometers, Samsung leads with 60%.
The remaining 40% belong to TSMC.
Image source: Counterpoint Technology Market Research

ASUS and Gigabyte are preparing for a 25% drop in motherboard sales at once

ASUS and Gigabyte have revised their forecasts for motherboard shipments by the end of this year, DigiTimes reports citing industry sources.
Both companies account for almost 70% of the global supply of these components.
By the end of this year, both makers expect their sales to be about 25% lower than they were last year.Image source: ASUSThe first sign of a slowing motherboard market was the drop in demand in the second quarter.
It was even more significant than analysts predicted.
The latter now believe that demand will continue to fall in the third and possibly even the fourth quarter.Experts call the main reason for the decline in sales of graphics cards from the protracted deficit.
ASUS and Gigabyte took advantage of the shortage of graphics and drove sales of their motherboards by selling bundles of motherboard and graphics cards.
The gas pedal shortage peaked last year.
Back then, one of the few ways to buy a new graphics card was to buy a variety of computer hardware kits that included scarce graphics gas pedals.
In some individual cases, consumers even had to buy a whole finished computer to get a brand new GeForce RTX 30-series graphics card or Radeon RX 6000.
DigiTimes sources say an additional factor in the decline of motherboards sales is the drop in demand for these components in China - one of the major markets.ASUS expects a roughly 24% drop in sales of its motherboards, and Gigabyte - by 27%.
The first company plans to ship 14 million motherboards, while the second - 9.5 million.
Also, analysts predict the overall decline in motherboard shipments for the year by about a quarter.
If last year about 40 million boards were delivered to the market, this year the deliveries of only 30 million boards are forecasted.

MediaTek came out to the leaders by the number of supplied processors for smartphones

Counterpoint Technology Market Research company released the results of the study of the global market of single-chip platforms (SoC) for smartphones in physical terms in the first quarter of this year.Image source: MediaTekThe day before it was reported that Qualcomm was leading by the amount of revenue from mobile SoC and baseband solutions in the first quarter of 2022 with a share of 44 %.
Next comes Apple and MediaTek with the result 26% and 19% respectively.However if we consider the market in terms of supplies in pieces, the picture looks different.
The largest supplier of processors for smartphones is MediaTek with a share of 38%.
It is noted that sales of 5G products of this company for the year jumped by 20%.
The products of Dimensity 700 and Dimensity 900 series are in high demand.Image source: Counterpoint Technology Market ResearchThe second place in terms of supplies in physical terms is occupied by Qualcomm, which took 30% of the global market.
The Snapdragon 700 and Snapdragon 800 chips are in demand among smartphone developers.Rounding out the top three is Apple with 15%.
Unisoc, Samsung and Huawei HiSilicon are next with 11%, 5% and 1%, respectively.

Qualcomm leads the market of chips for smartphones with the share of 44%

Counterpoint Technology Market Research estimated the balance of power in the global market of chips for smartphones.
The report covers the application processor (SoC) and baseband solutions that support cellular communications in mobile devices.
If we consider the sphere of 5G, the growth was at 36%.The undisputed leader is Qualcomm with a share of 44%.
During the year, revenues of this company from sales of SoC and baseband chips soared by 56%, reaching $ 6.3 billion.Second place is occupied by Apple, which received 26% of the total market revenues.
Smartphones of iPhone 13 family continue to be in high demand.Image source: Counterpoint Technology Market ResearchThe bottom three is MediaTek with a share of approximately 19%.
During the year, the company increased revenue by 29%, which contributed to good demand for solutions that support 5G.In addition, the top players in the industry included Samsung, Unisoc and Huawei HiSilicon: their result was respectively 7%, 3% and 1%.

Video card shipments soared 32% in Q1 2022, but manufacturers' revenue fell

Shipments of NVIDIA and AMD discrete graphics cards in Q1 2022 increased 32.2% over the same period last year, according to a fresh report from Jon Peddie Research analysts.
At the same time sales were up slightly compared to last quarter, but the revenue of graphics card manufacturers (MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte and others) seriously collapsed.Image source: EVGAccording to the latest figures, in the first quarter of 2022 was delivered to market 13.4 million discrete gas pedals.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the figure was 13.19 million units.
At the same time, revenue in the last quarter of 2021 was $12.4 billion, and in the first three months of 2022 reached only $8.6 billion, mainly because the cost of cards over the past year has decreased significantly.According to Jon Peddie Research, the annual revenue of the graphics gas pedal market by 2025 will grow to $57 billion.
According to the results in 2021, it was $46 billion.
Further growth will contribute to the production of discrete graphics cards based on graphics processors from Intel, the implementation of which will begin this year.Analysts also note a change in the distribution of market shares between AMD and NVIDIA over the past year.
In the first quarter of 2021 AMD had only 20% of the discrete graphics card market, while NVIDIA had 80%.
By the first quarter of 2022, AMD gained another 4 percentage points.
Its graphics cards now represent 24% of the market.
NVIDIA, in turn, has lost 5 %.
On the whole, we see the year 2022 as a year of recovery for the graphics gas pedal market.
The supply of graphics cards improved significantly over last year as the shortage of semiconductor components eased and prices of gas pedals continue to decline.

DDR5 modules in the last six months noticeably fell in price in the global market

Prices of DDR5 standard RAM modules are still significantly higher than DDR4 memory, but over the past six months have fallen to more or less acceptable values.
That's according to Tom's Hardware, which analyzed offers from major U.S.
computer stores like Newegg and Amazon.Image source: ComputerBase.deIt makes sense that low-speed DDR5 modules with high timings are more affordable.
In this case the price for 1 GB of memory will be around $6-7 or $120-130 for a set of two modules with a total of 16 GB.
This is considerably less than the price, which sellers were asking for memory of the new standard at the start of its sales.
Sets cheaper than $ 500-1000 at that time to find in the free sale in principle not possible.
Fortunately, the manufacturers of DDR5 memory chips optimize their production, the lack of components weakened, and it is only natural that the modules of the new memory standard began to get cheaper.
At the same time, Tom's Hardware notes that the decline in prices is observed not only in the U.S., but also in Europe.
The data confirms the German portal ComputerBase, which reports that the average price per gigabyte of DDR5 memory on the European market has dropped to nearly €5.
In the U.S., the most affordable sets of DDR5 memory with a total capacity of 16 GB offered by brands Crucial, Kingston and Patriot.
Variants with a frequency of 4800 MHz and CL40 timings can be purchased for $110-120.
Faster kits with 5200-5600 MHz and CL40-CL36 timings are available for $120-180.
Sets of two DDR5 RAM cards of 16 GB each (32 GB total) at 5200 to 5600 MHz and CL34-CL36 timings can be found for less than $250.Image source: Tom's HardwareFor even higher speed modules with 6000 MHz and CL32-CL36 timings you would have to pay over $300.
This is still very expensive, but much cheaper than a few months ago.
For example, back in December last year, a 32GB set of G.Skill Trident Z DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM was offered for $4000 (four thousand dollars).
In January, its price dropped to $800.
And today the exact same memory and even with lower latencies can be found \"only\" for $380.It is very likely that by the release of Ryzen 7000 processors, which will work exclusively with DDR5, memory modules will fall even further in price.

Graphics card prices in Europe are now on average 2-6% higher than recommended, but there are exceptions

The life cycle of the generation of GeForce RTX 3000 and Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards is coming to its end.
And only now their average price is as close to the recommended (MSRP), says the latest data from the portal 3DCenter, which monitors the market for graphics gas pedals in Germany and Austria.Image source: VideoCardzThe portal 3DCenter began analyzing the graphics cards market since January last year.
The coronavirus pandemic, the associated shortage of components, the transition of the economy to a hybrid remote working from home model, high demand and the simultaneous rise in cryptocurrency prices - all this ultimately led to the most prolonged increase in the price of graphics cards in history.
Nevertheless, the market is slowly coming back to normal.
Some graphics card models are now offered not only at the recommended price, but even cheaper.
However, some models are still sold at prices by 20-30% more expensive than the recommended price.The most popular models Radeon RX 6700 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 still sell significantly more expensive than their recommended prices.
And yet the markup on them has also decreased - from an average of 23% to 17% over the past three weeks.
At the same time, flagship and entry-level models are often sold below the recommended prices.
Information on prices of gas pedals on the basis of data from German and Austrian retailers provided aggregator Geizhals.
Please note that the prices in the tables below are inclusive of the 19% VAT.
Price trends of GeForce RTX 30-series and Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards.
Source: 3DCenterThe AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards now sell on average 2% more expensive than their recommended prices.
Moreover, you can even find on sale some models of recently released graphics cards that are offered below the recommended value.
An example is the Radeon RX 6750 XT, which hasn't even been released for a month.
According to the latest data, the average price of Radeon RX 6500 XT is 19% lower than the recommended price.
If it were not for the influence of prices of such models as Radeon RX 6800 XT, RX 6800, which are still sold at 22 and 35 percent higher than the MSRP value, the combined average price of gas pedals today was already 3.2 % below the recommended value.The situation with the prices of GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards in general is traditionally worse.
The flagship model GeForce RTX 3090 has the smallest markup - it is offered on average by 2% more expensive than the recommended price.
GeForce RTX 3080 12GB model sells on average 5% more expensive.
Unfortunately, models like the GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 still sell for significantly more than they should.
Gamers have to overpay at least 12% of the recommended price.As a result, the cost of GeForce RTX gas pedals is on average 6% higher than the recommended prices.
Excluding the models with the highest markups (GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti), the average markup on Ampere gas pedals would be 2% above the recommended price.

The market is almost cleared of video card resellers - consumers have gone to the stores

The time of domination of speculators in the graphics gas pedal market has come to an end, writes PCMag.
At least for now.
The interest in buying graphics cards from the hands of consumers has decreased significantly, and with it the resale value of gas pedals has fallen.Image source: PCMag \"Everybody's sick of videocards,\" - said in a conversation with the publication of one of the resellers videocard.For examples do not go far.
Enough just look at the statistics of online trading platform eBay - one of the fiefdoms of speculators.
Over the past year, the average selling price of NVIDIA graphics cards has fallen to almost the recommended prices for these gas pedals.
The average selling price of a GeForce RTX 3070 on eBayInstead of buying on eBay, it is becoming more profitable to simply go to your local electronics store and purchase a brand new graphics card at a retailer's price, especially since major retailers Newegg and Best Buy have greatly improved their availability.
And for some models the retailers even offer a discount and as a result the cards are even sold below the recommended prices.
Even used gas pedals are more profitable to buy from the same Amazon Warehouse, and not go to eBay, where many miners are trying to get rid of graphics cards on the wave of plummeting cryptocurrency market, says PCMag.
The average selling price of GeForce RTX 3080 on eBay \"Yes, the reseller sphere is effectively dead.
Sales, of course, are still going on, but at much lower prices.
For those same miners, it has become much harder to get rid of their inventory,\" commented representatives of Falcodrin Stock Alerts service, which monitors new arrivals and availability of video cards in various retail outlets.In online communities of resellers similar atmosphere.
\"The graphics gas pedal market has come to an end.
PS5 consoles only bought well into the New Year,\" complained one reseller.
\"Rest in peace graphics cards,\" added another.
Graphics card prices at NeweggThe only exception are the reference versions of NVIDIA Founders Edition gas pedals, particularly the GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti models.
In this version graphics cards are sold at the lowest prices.
In other words, resellers can still make a profit from reselling them.
However, these graphics cards are hard to get.
In the U.S., the only retailer that sells NVIDIA Founders Edition gas pedals is Best Buy.
New shipments of these graphics cards usually occur every month, but immediately dispersed.Instead of video cards, resellers are beginning to focus on other resale items, for which at the moment there is still a rush.
NFT tokens, for example, are one of them.
One of their resellers, by the way, who is still in high school, told PCMag that he has decided to stop reselling game consoles and instead focus on selling non-interchangeable tokens.
\"NFTs are a really cool thing.
I like them because all the sales happen online.
Besides, they make a lot more profit,\" said a young Ostap Bender of western tailoring.The decline in interest in video cards from resellers plays into the hands of regular gamers who are considering upgrading their PCs.
Computer hardware manufacturers, in turn, predict a further decline in graphics card prices and a surge of interest in self-assembly of computers.
This opinion is held, for example, by Corsair, which believes it will happen in the second half of this year.
The current situation in the cryptocurrency market also acts in favor of the forecast.
However, the demand for graphics cards can grow significantly again, as NVIDIA and AMD are going to release a new generation of gas pedals in the second half of this year.
If demand is high enough and availability is low, then resellers may again turn their attention to the lucrative market.