iPhone upgrade surge may boost Taiwan’s phone recycling volume to 100,000 units in 2025

Taiwan’s used phone market is showing signs of warming up. The growth is driven in part by a wave of device upgrades following the launch of Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup. It has been further fueled by “phone recycling month” programs in October, during which telecom operators and retail channels actively promote trade-in and recycling programs.

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Huawei overtakes Apple, topping global smartwatch market

Huawei smartwatches have recently seen a steady rise in sales in the Japanese market, particularly favored by middle-aged and elderly consumers. Retail channels indicate that since April 2025, when Takuya Kimura became the brand ambassador, the number of customers aged 40 to 70 has noticeably increased. Many have chosen Huawei smartwatches as their first smart wearable device, mainly focusing on health monitoring features that meet their needs.

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Japan to expand export controls on dual-use technologies from October 9

Japan will expand export controls to cover general-purpose machine tools, integrated circuits, drones, radar, navigation, and testing equipment, requiring companies to verify potential military use. The new rules, effective October 9, 2025, broaden oversight beyond UN arms embargo countries to most global destinations, including China and Southeast Asia.

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TSMC, Samsung components still found in Huawei’s Ascend 910C

Semiconductor intelligence firm TechInsights has concluded, following a teardown of Huawei Technologies’ Ascend 910C chip, that some of the components still come from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix. The analysis showed that the chip die for the Ascend 910C was produced by TSMC and used high-bandwidth memory 2 enhanced (HBM2E) supplied by Samsung and SK Hynix.

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