Murata Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest maker of ceramic capacitors for Apple and other phone makers, expects demand for 5G phones to surpass 500 million units in 2021, building on a rush to replace Huawei in the worldwide consumer smartphone market.
Takashi Mochizuki and Yuki Furukawa for Bloomberg News:
Apple, Samsung Electronics Co. and Chinese rivals Xiaomi Corp., Oppo and Vivo are vying to secure components for their devices, hoping to fill a void as Huawei’s mobile business shrinks under the weight of U.S. sanctions. President Norio Nakajima said in a December interview that Murata’s factories won’t be taking a holiday break as they work to catch up with mounting orders, adding “the situation is most severe with our cutting-edge capacitors for smartphone use.”
“The industry had 300 million units of 5G smartphones during the current fiscal year, and I expect that to increase to at least 500 million in the next fiscal year,” the president of the Kyoto-based company said. “We will continue making capital expenditure to keep up with the growing demand.”
Ace Research Institute’s Hideki Yasuda doesn’t expect demand from Apple and its ilk to drop at any point in this calendar year, fueled by stronger-than-anticipated consumer appetite for 5G phones.
MacDailyNews Take: 500 million 5G phones – at least! Great news for Apple is obviously great news for Apple suppliers.