In the past three years, high-end smartphone has been one of the biggest growth drivers for the semiconductor industry given robust unit growth and substantial semi content increase. However, a perceived lack of innovation (e.g. iPhone 5, Galaxy S4) and delays in purchases have resulted in a sharp slowdown of high-end smartphone demand in 2013. Both iPhone 5 and GS4 turned out to be major disappointments. Given Apple and Samsung together account for more than 3/4th of the total high-end smartphone market, it’s a clear sign that high-end demand is slowing down.
The biggest culprit is apparently Apple, as we expect Apple’s high-end smartphone shipments to decline Y/Y in 2013 (we defined Apple’s high-end model as all the iPhones except for iPhone 4, but we do