Top 10 Trends in Information and Communication Technology Industry for 2020
October 2, 2019 | TrendForceEstimated reading time: 11 minutes
Developments in the global telecom sector during 2020 will continue to revolve around 5G. Major communication chip manufacturers (e.g. Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, and MediaTek) and telecom equipment providers (e.g. Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia) will be introducing various kinds of solutions as they compete for a piece of the 5G market. The focus in the development of the network architecture will be on Standalone (SA) 5G technologies, so rising demand for 5G New Radio (NR) equipment and core network solutions is expected. The main emphasis of SA technologies is to ensure that the wireless network, the core network, and the backhaul architecture can meet the 5G requirements for the uplink rate, the network latency, and the number of connections when supporting applications such as networking slicing and edge computing. Also, following the scheduled completion of the development of the R16 standard in the first half of 2020, telecom companies in countries around the world will begin planning for the rollout of the 5G infrastructure. In addition to the deployment of 5G networks in heavily populated metropolitan areas, the range of commercially available 5G-enabled services will also expand. Hence, more 5G devices and wireless base stations are expected to arrive in the market in the near future.
Market penetration of 5G smartphones will surpass 15%, and Chinese brands will account for more than half of the total pro
The focus of external design for smartphones in 2020 will remain on creating as perfect a full-screen device as possible through the maximization of the display area. The optimization of the full-screen design, in turn, will also lead to greater adoption of in-display fingerprint sensors, an increase in the angle at which the screen curves to the sides, and further advancement in the development of in-display camera. Other hardware specifications that smartphone makers will be targeting for improvement are the onboard memory and the front and rear cameras. Regarding memory, the density of DRAM and NAND Flash components will continue to increase next year. As for cameras, smartphone makers will upgrade resolutions and introduce more sophisticated multi-cam setups for the rear camera.
On the topic of 5G, smartphone makers are becoming more proactive in developing 5G-enabled models. Furthermore, the Chinese government continues to aggressively push for the commercialization of the 5G network and related services. As a result, the demand for 5G smartphones will gain momentum in 2020. TrendForce currently forecasts that the share of 5G models in the global annual smartphone production will leap upward from less than 1% for 2019 to over 15% for 2020. Also, TrendForce expects devices under Chinese brands to account for more than 50% of the total 5G smartphone production in 2020. On the other hand, purchases of 5G smartphones by consumers will still hinge on a few fundamental factors such as the progress made in the deployment of the 5G infrastructure worldwide, the data plans offered by telecom companies, and the pricing of the devices themselves.
High refresh rate mobile phone panel demand increases, and tablet becomes Mini LED and OLED new battleground
In terms of mobile phone panel, so far, OLED or LCD panel specifications have been able to meet the needs of all kinds of consumers, but with the 5G deployment, its high transmission efficiency and low latency characteristics can improve the dynamic performance of mobile phone content and develop mobile phone applications in other areas such as AR, boosting the demand for 90Hz or even 120Hz panels.
In terms of the most popular esports application, in addition to the existing high refresh rate panels, the production conditions are becoming more abundant for higher-end products that enhance contrast performance through Mini LED backlight. After many years of LCD adoption, the market also announced that the 2020 iPad may be simultaneously introduced with Mini LED backlight and OLED, making the tablet become another opportunity for OLED and Mini LED.
Micro LED will open up a new blue ocean in the oversupplied display industry
In terms of the progress of Micro LED self-emissive display, more and more panel manufacturers introduced Micro LED with glass backplane, but due to yield rate problem, currently the maximum size is 12 inches. The larger size of the display can be achieved through glass splicing. Although the cost of Micro LED is still high in the short term, because Micro LED with mass transfer technology can be combined with different display backplanes to produce transparent, projected, curved, flexible and other display effects, in the future, there will be opportunities to create a new blue ocean market in the oversupplied display industry. Take foldable display market as an example, because the material structure is robust and does not require many protective layers and polarization, Micro LED may be a proper solution.
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