The Counterpoint Podcast

The global semiconductor components shortage has been in the news since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade tensions between the US and China further upset the normal supply situation and the automotive sector was among the high-profile casualties. Chip manufacturers addressed the supply-demand issue by increasing capacity. Then, there is the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has added further u...

The consumer demand for high-speed home broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace as companies adopt the hybrid working culture. Even personal content consumption has increased, be it for music and video streaming, gaming or other applications. And as billions of consumers across the globe continue to wait for reliable home broadband, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) in conjunction with 5G is proving...

Private Networks, especially in relation to 5G , were one of the hot topics of discussion at the Mobile World Congress ( MWC 22 ) in Barcelona earlier this year. They have been gaining momentum with deployments across different scenarios such as manufacturing and mining, and for connecting devices like smart meters and sensors. Private Networks also have several other use cases that require high-q...

Refurbished smartphones are cost-effective alternatives for consumers looking to save money when buying a smartphone. Apple and Samsung are the top brands in this secondary smartphone market, allowing users to purchase a flagship smartphone at a much lower cost. Shipments for the global refurbished smartphone market grew 4.5% YoY in 2021. Volumes also witnessed 15% growth according to Counterpoint...

Modern cars now feature an array of advanced digital technologies such as ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) that offer things like lane assist, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, and more. And as things progress towards the next level of autonomous driving, the digital cockpit will play a crucial role in unlocking future connected car experiences.  Besides offering personalized...

Smartphones have become a big part of our daily lives. From advanced processing power to vivid high-refresh-rate displays and stunning cameras, there is a lot that modern smartphones offer. But whether you are at home, in office, or traveling, it is the battery that decides your smartphone’s ability to communicate, complete a transaction, or click photos at any given time. Smartphone battery techn...

It is always interesting to talk about the future. But in the absence of any magical crystal ball, getting your prediction right needs experience, vision and good judgment. Now, a lot has changed over the past couple of years, with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic driving some new use cases of technologies. Many of these use cases will shape the digital future.  These two years have seen the fall o...

As home security solutions such as security cameras are now used in several households, there is an increasing need for AI (Artificial Intelligence) inferencing at the edge. Typically, the security solution relies on machine learning models to identify objects or faces in the CCTV footage – for example differentiating between a cat and a human. The data is then sent to the cloud for analysis and s...

The global smartphone market has been through a bumpy ride during the last couple of years — US sanctions on Huawei, COVID-19 , ongoing component shortages and LG’s exit to name a few. Some smartphone makers, such as Huawei , LG and Samsung , have been impacted more than others by these events. At the same time, Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi , OPPO , vivo and OnePlus have benefited from th...

Mobile handsets have evolved with every new cellular generation, both in terms of form factor and capabilities. From advanced photography and videography to high-speed internet connectivity and the console-like mobile gaming experience, all these capabilities are unlocked by the system on chip (SoC). Qualcomm is the leading SoC company globally and is driving these advanced technologies and smart...

The geopolitical tensions between the US and China disrupted supply chains after sanctions against ZTE and Huawei. The global pandemic and lockdown restrictions further added to the woes, creating a supply-demand imbalance along with other challenges. As smartphone and PC makers, automobile companies and other businesses heavily rely on Taiwan, South Korea and China for critical components and man...

Personal and home audio technology has greatly evolved over the years. We have moved from wired to mono Bluetooth and stereo wireless headphones to True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds. In the home audio segment, soundbars are becoming popular as they can deliver a great home theatre experience. But it is not just about the changing form factors, there have been improvements in audio delivery system...

As India battles a more virulent second wave of COVID-19 , lockdown-like restrictions have been imposed across several states. This has impacted several businesses and industries, including the country’s smartphone market, which had registered record growth in Q1 2021 due to pent-up demand. With the restrictions on, the smartphone growth story has not continued in Q2 2021 as smartphones are not co...

The beginning of 2020 was quite challenging for the smartphone market after the COVID-19 outbreak, which resulted in lockdowns across several countries. However, things eased in the second half with pent-up demand driving smartphone sales. The momentum continued through Q1 2021, with the iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S21 series doing well in the premium segment. Even the telecom operators offered g...

The South East Asia (SEA) smartphone market declined in the first half of 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns. But as the restrictions started to ease, OEMs were quick enough to focus on online channels to meet the pent-up demand. Online channels in Indonesia reached their highest point in Q4 2020, with brands like Xiaomi and realme leading online sales. Thailand’s smartphone market also saw online cha...

We saw the first wave of 5G smartphone launches in H1 2019 with prices above $1,000. These premium smartphones gave way to a completely new pricing landscape in just around a year, with the most affordable 5G smartphone coming under $200 in China in 2020. Moving into 2021, we have the ongoing issue of component shortages across the semiconductor industry.   In our previous podcast, we discussed th...

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted automobile sales in H1 2020. But as the demand started recovering in H2 2020, the semiconductor shortage crisis hit the automobile industry too. The chipset production capacity is already stretched by the rise in demand from smartphones and laptops due to work-from-home and learn-from-home. As a result, the semiconductor shortage faced by the automobile industry is u...

With smartphones becoming ubiquitous, data security has come under the scanner. In particular, robust security is needed to use smartphones for activities like financial transactions and for unlocking our homes and cars. This is where embedded hardware security can help in storing user credentials securely in an environment called secure element (SE). Around 35% of the smartphones sold globally in...

Over the years, the size of the SIM card has shrunk from a credit card form factor to a size smaller than the index fingernail. But as we move into a more connected world with NB-IoT devices and foldable smartphones, the eSIM (or embedded SIM) is gaining popularity.  The eSIM eliminates the need for having a physical SIM card slot, thus saving the board space for engineers, which can be used for o...

Despite economic uncertainty that was created, the key takeaway from 2020 is that the smartphone market is resilient as there is a strong demand for it. There were interesting events that took place in 2020, where we saw the shift in channel where online sales have been growing. There were some geopolitical issues too where US sanctions on Huawei caused a major impact on the company. Huawei lost a...

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the world around us has changed with people working-from-home, and students learning-from-home. XR is all about offering users with an immersive experience , and standalone gaming could be one of the key drivers for the eXtended reality platform. With learning can be fun as explaining the concept of universe, chemistry and physics could be fun and exciting with virtual...

Wearables come in different forms, from fitness bands to smartwatches. These devices have a unique proposition as they are worn on wrist. This enables the user to constantly monitor vital health parameters. Basic fitness trackers come with features like a pedometer, sleep monitor and heart rate sensor. The advanced ones include GPS and workout detection features to log cycling, skipping, squats an...

The gaming smartphones are more powerful than the regular flagship smartphones in terms of hardware, design and capabilities. In fact, popular features such as high refresh rate displays, vapour chamber cooling and dedicated gaming mode were first introduced in gaming smartphones. But what differentiates these special phones from regular flagship smartphones? And who are these phones meant for? We...

AI is a broad definition that includes everything from statistical analysis to software to deep learning . Now, there are companies there are actually doing AI by pushing back the boundaries, and we call them practitioners. Then there are others that base their intelligence on statistics, that we call pretenders. There is also a third category called “tricksters” that do not do any AI at all. So,...

There are different types of connected cars that are available in the market, from embedded TCUs to hybrid and smartphone-connected ones. Add-on connectivity features also open up new revenue streams for automakers . But which are the leading automakers in the connected cars market, what are the key drivers and which countries are leading the segment? We discuss all this and more in our latest pod...