With the global IoT (Internet of Things) chipset markets, particularly in China, expected to grow sharply in 2018 along with the rapid development of diverse terminal devices and increasing realization of IoT applications, Taiwan IC design houses are ready to enjoy explosive orders from terminal IoT markets, giving them optimism about their shipment and revenue performances for the year, according to industry sources.

The sources said demand for IoT chipset solutions in the China market alone is estimated to shoot up at least 50% on year in 2018, compared to a 20-30% annual growth estimated for the global market demand. This is because the China government is injecting substantial resources to encourage the development of B2C and B2B IoT applications, while China Mobile and China Unicom have since 2017 also joined forces with numerous providers of IoT services to explore the huge business opportunities there.

Taiwan leading IC designer MediaTek said that IoT customers used to demand low-cost wireless connection chipsets for single devices needed by single customers, or for trial sales in a single market segment, thus involving quite limited business opportunities.

But situations have changed now, as the company has gradually rolled out more power-efficient modem chipset solutions with a life of 3-5 years, prompting more and more customers to adopt IoT modules to facilitate connection and tracking functions anytime and anywhere. This adoption trend, coupled with worldwide telecom operators gearing up to tap the IoT application business opportunities, will fuel a steep growth in the global markets for IoT devices and applications, the company indicated.

As China Mobile and China Unicom joined the IoT market in 2017, MediaTek saw its shipments of IoT chips to China surge drastically to over 10 million pieces in the year, indicating the huge growth potential in chipset demand from terminal markets.

Industry sources said Taiwan IC designers including those engaged in wired and wireless connection chips, analog ICs and MCU chips have joined forces with upstream and downstream supply chains as well as suppliers of terminal modules and brand customers, seeking to benefit from the expected exponential growth in terminal IoT market demand.

By: DocMemory
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