Demand for high-end handsets is dropping

Global handset vendors are lowering their shipments goals for high-end handset and smartphones in the fourth quarter and and related chip suppliers such as Texas Instruments (TI), Qualcomm, Infineon Technologies, Broadcom and ST-NXP Wireless are the first to fell the impact, according to industry players. Only MediaTek is being temporarily buffered by demand from the China market.

The conservative fourth-quarter outlook of handset vendors is as expected since consumers have tightened budgets for high price products. Order volumes for high-end handsets and smartphones have declined week by week since the last week of September, commented the sources.