Global semiconductor sales reached $41.8 billion in April, increasing 1.9% from March and 21.7% from April 2020, reported the Semiconductor Industry Association Wednesday. “Global demand for semiconductors remained high in April, as reflected by rising sales across a range of chip products and throughout each of the world’s major regional markets,” said SIA President John Neuffer. “The global chip market is projected to grow substantially in 2021 and 2022 as semiconductors become increasingly integral to the game-changing technologies of today and the future.” Year-over-year sales increased 25.7% in China, 24.3% in Asia Pacific, 20.1% in Europe, 17.6% in Japan and 14.3% in the Americas, said SIA.

April imports to the U.S. of laptops, tablets and smartphones were little changed sequentially and double digits higher than April 2020, per Census data we accessed Wednesday through the International Trade Commission. The 59.81 million smartphones shipped here in 2021's first four months were 25% above the 47.89 million handsets in the year-earlier period. April smartphone imports to the U.S. from all countries under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8517.12.00 reached 15.09 million, up 27%. China generated 77% of April smartphone imports.

Marvell Technology expects a “strong second-half ramp” compared with the first half in its networking business. That stems from the “increase in 5G adoption in the U.S. and other regions,” said CEO Matt Murphy on a call Monday for fiscal Q1 ended May 1.

Global smartphone sales to end users, rebounding from their “steep decline” in 2020, grew 26% year over year in Q1 to just under 378 million handsets, reported Gartner Monday. “The improvement in consumer outlook, sustained learning and working from home, along with pent-up demand from 2020 boosted sales of smartphones in the first quarter,” said Anshul Gupta. Consumers started spending on discretionary items as the pandemic situation improved in many parts of the world and markets opened up,” said the analyst. Top-three vendors Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi maintained their positions. Samsung’s launch of under-$150 handsets boosted its unit sales globally, as did early shipments of its flagship 5G smartphones, said Gartner.

IPhones global sales will generate nearly 40% of 2022's smartphone market, despite being fewer than 20% of units sold, reported Juniper Research Monday. “Apple has managed to consistently convince users to purchase higher-priced models through curation of a strong hardware and software ecosystem.” Apple’s average selling prices will rise in coming years, while Android ASPs will decline, “unless they can leverage new technologies like 5G or bring new design features, such as foldable phones, into the market,” said Juniper. Android smartphone vendors “will struggle to compete on a features basis,” it said. “Vendors that focus on a particular segment and investing in premium features, such as high-end audio and advances in camera technology, will not appeal widely enough to compete at scale.”

Samsung called its deal with Walmart to equip 740,000 employees with Galaxy XCover Pro smartphones (see 2106030028) its largest U.S. enterprise deal. The phone has an immersive display, “powerful camera” and long-lasting battery, Samsung blogged Friday: On-the-job functions include mobile clock-in, access to scheduling and inventory management via the camera, which doubles as a barcode scanner. Workers can tap a co-worker's name and initiate a push-to-talk conversation from the phone using a physical side key. Knox security software creates separate work and personal profiles.

Chip demand is “much more pervasive than we've ever seen” and “we're really in the early innings of this huge demand acceleration,” Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson told a Bernstein virtual conference Wednesday. The company supplies semiconductor production equipment to chipmakers and OLED vapor-deposition products and services to Chinese panel makers, Customers are talking about “big multiyear investments” in “longer-term supply assurance” contracts, more “than I've ever heard before,” he said. “I really see a rethinking of the whole supply chain, and people are understanding that you can't respond in a matter of weeks or months relative to building capacity.” People in the supply chain “are understanding this just-in-time type of a mindset is not going to work,” he said.

Upcoming flagship smartphones will have to differentiate with advanced functionality such as Wi-Fi 6 and ultrawideband to continue to stand out at the high end of the market as 5G adoption becomes more mainstream, said ABI Research's David McQueen Tuesday. Other features expected to set flagship phones apart are fast-charging technology, foldable and rollable displays, and improved cameras. 5G handsets were largely immune from supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, leading to a more diverse device landscape with a wide variety of prices, the analyst said: “The mobile market is quickly transitioning to 5G and many leading OEMs are pushing ever-deeper into the lower-priced 5G smartphone segment.” ABI forecasts 681 million 5G handsets will ship in 2022. The researcher expects 5G integration and always-on connectivity to appear in tablets, Chromebooks and laptop PCs “as the portable computing and mobile value chains converge more than ever.” COVID-19 boosted demand for mobile computing products, and 5G will become a more prominent feature in high-end products from Samsung, Apple, and Huawei. “Dozens” of always-on 5G portable devices, including tablets and notebook PCs, will hit the market this year, exceeding 10 million next year, said ABI.

Incoming CEO Cristiano Amon rejects the notion Qualcomm is “more acutely impacted” by the chip shortage than others in the space, he told JPMorgan’s virtual conference Wednesday. Spiking demand from many end-market sectors is so pervasive that few, if any, chipmakers are able to keep up, he said: “In the current environment, if you're a semiconductor company and you don't have more demand than supply, you should be worried.” Qualcomm is navigating the crisis through “capacity-planning actions with our foundries, and we expect to see material improvements towards the end of the year,” he said. The company is a firm believer that 5G will require millimeter wave to reach its “full potential,” said Amon. Every global 5G market “eventually” will have mmWave, he said. “It's just a question of time.”

Global smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.38 billion handsets this year, rising 7.7% over 2020, reported IDC Wednesday. That trajectory is expected to continue into 2022, with 3.8% growth to 1.43 billion. “Markets worldwide continue to migrate toward 5G,” said IDC. “Within emerging markets, there is strong demand for mid-range and low-end 4G phones following last year's pandemic slowdown.” It projects a 3.7% compound annual growth rate in smartphone shipments through 2025. The chip shortage remains a concern for smartphone OEMs, but the impact has been far less than in other markets, said IDC. “Smartphones are seeing competition for consumer spending from adjacent markets like PCs, tablets, TVs and smart home devices, yet that hasn't slowed the market's path to recovery,” said analyst Ryan Reith. A strong “supply-side push” toward 5G continues, and prices of such handsets are dropping, said Reith. IDC expects average selling prices for 5G Android devices to drop 12% in 2021 to $456 and then below $400 in 2022: “With 5G shipments expected to grow nearly 130% in 2021, almost all regions outside of China will see triple-digit growth.”