IC design houses, particularly those specializing in chips for handsets and other mass-market device applications, are under pressure to lower their prices amid sluggish end-market demand. But price competition will be confined to only some chip segments in the short term as foundry costs remain high and overall chip shortages have yet to fully ease, according to industry sources.

In 2014, 3D NAND flash was introduced to the industry with 24 layers, and it co-existed with 2D NAND flash until 2017. 3D NAND flash gradually came to dominate the market with its high-density storage capacity and technologies, and its manufacturing process completely diverged from that of DRAM. The synergy of utilizing the same processes and equipment for the two memory types – DRAM and NAND – was completely gone, and the core of competitive strategies in the memory industry changed.

Overall notebook production in China, which mainly takes place in major coastal cities in eastern China, is unlikely to return to pre-lockdown levels until July, according to industry sources. Insufficient manpower and logistical problems were cited as the main challenges.

Despite recent falls in memory chip prices, Winbond Electronics is poised to generate sequential revenue growth in the second quarter of 2022, according to market sources.