Mobile technology giant Vivo and new energy vehicle leader BYD have officially signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement, marking a major milestone in smart mobility.

India is now an important market for Apple in two ways. It is a growth market where the company set an all-time revenue record in the September quarter, even as overall smartphone shipments fell to a decade low. It is also a production base that, according to industry estimates, assembles roughly one in four iPhones.

Marvell announced on November 2 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lumentum Holdings in an all-stock transaction valued at nearly US$115 billion. Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2028.

Qualcomm's weakening smartphone business is accelerating its transformation into an AI infrastructure supplier, with custom accelerators, server CPUs, and optical connectivity emerging as growth priorities. Following a 26% annual decline in handset chip revenue in fiscal 4Q26, the US chipmaker is targeting US$5 billion in data center revenue in fiscal 2027 and US$15 billion by fiscal 2029. The question is whether these businesses can scale quickly enough to offset pressures in its traditional market.

Qualcomm's fiscal fourth quarter showed a company whose growth now comes almost entirely from outside the smartphone, but not yet at a scale that can offset a shrinking handset business. Revenue fell 8% from a year earlier to US$10.3 billion for the three months ended September 27, according to the company's November 4 earnings release, as a memory-driven downturn in phone demand weighed on its largest product line while automotive chips grew sharply.

Arm's September quarter showed demand for its technology moving toward data centers while its smartphone royalty base slowed. Revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to a record US$1.44 billion for the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, according to the company's November 4 shareholder letter. Still, the gain came mostly from licensing deals rather than from the per-chip royalties that make up Arm's recurring income.

South Korea's Supreme Court has upheld a KRW18.664 billion (approx. US$13.9 million) fine against Broadcom for pressuring Samsung Electronics into a long-term smartphone component purchasing agreement by disrupting supplies, bringing the US chipmaker's legal challenge to an end.

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is expanding its partnership with Google beyond Google One, YouTube Premium and Pixel smartphone sales to include GenAI services. On November 4, CHT announced plans to introduce Google's latest AI offerings through its channels, while Google Taiwan said the partners will launch more initiatives in 2027 to promote AI-enabled living.

Samsung Electronics defied a 16.6% year-over-year decline in Africa's overall smartphone sales in the second quarter of 2026, posting 34.8% growth and claiming the continent's smartphone market leadership by sales value in the first half of 2026. South Korean media reported that Samsung's installment plans lowered the barrier to smartphone ownership and generated 46% of its mobile sales revenue in Africa in 2026.

MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of Taiwan Weeks 2026 on November 3, emphasizing that the company is expanding beyond smartphone and connectivity chips into computing, automotive, and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. He also noted that Nvidia and Alphabet's recent investment in MediaTek convertible bonds represents more than just capital injections, but also confidence in MediaTek from leading global AI players.

Performance advertising company Taboola is partnering with Motorola to bring its DeeperDive AI question-and-answer engine to the Moto G series of smartphones, offering users a new way to interact with AI.

The AI infrastructure boom has driven up memory prices across consumer electronics, dampening sales of smartphones and notebooks while hitting upstream system-on-chip (SoC) developers. With memory prices projected to keep climbing through 2027, industry observers generally expect end-market sales to remain sluggish, testing the resilience and strategy of players across the entire value chain.

BenQ Materials is targeting higher-value, faster-growing segments across its display, medical and semiconductor materials businesses. Chairman ZC Chen said the company's transformation centres on identifying stronger growth opportunities, with medical products expanding steadily and semiconductor materials expected to make progress in customer qualification during the fourth quarter.

Samsung Electronics Taiwan is partnering with local mobile payment platform PXPay as part of its expansion of Samsung Wallet applications. The move, announced on October 30 with services beginning on November 1, follows the earlier integration of tap-and-pay EasyCard functions into Samsung Wallet and aims to strengthen Samsung's competitiveness in Taiwan's mobile payment market. It forms part of a key strategy focused on the value of the company's proprietary applications as surging memory prices continue to impact smartphone sales numbers.

Dixon Technologies is counting on smartphone joint ventures, expanding IT hardware production, and locally made components to turn a sharp sales increase into stronger earnings, as rising memory costs inflate revenue without a corresponding rise in manufacturing volumes.

China's next-generation short-range wireless connectivity technology, NearLink, is actively pushing into markets beyond the Huawei ecosystem. Securing support from major chip vendors such as MediaTek, STMicroelectronics (ST), and NXP will be critical as the International SparkLink Alliance works to encourage wider adoption among non-Huawei smartphone brands, according to alliance secretary-general Guosong Zeng.

Global smartphone shipments fell an estimated 14% year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2026, even as the number of new 5G smartphone models rose 18.4%, according to DIGITIMES Intelligence. The figures show a divergence between new model launches and actual shipment volumes.

South Korean ultra-thin glass (UTG) maker Dowoo Insys is expanding its smartphone glass technology into the automotive market, developing protective glass for rollable OLED displays with a major South Korean automotive electronics company. The product could enter commercial production as early as the second half of 2027.

Despite new smartphone launches from Apple, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, rising memory prices are weakening sales momentum and prompting Chinese smartphone brands to adjust their product mix. DIGITIMES Intelligence senior analyst Luke Lin expects smartphone shipments in China to fall more than 13.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2026, and total shipments by Chinese brands to decline more than 35% year-over-year.

SpaceX's Starship super-heavy rocket completed its 14th test flight on September 28, successfully reaching Earth orbit and deploying 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. A 15th test flight is expected within weeks.

Huawei Technologies has reshuffled its top leadership, appointing Consumer Business Group (BG) CEO Gang He to its 17-member board. The move follows the departure of former board member Vincent Peng, who left after more than 27 years with the company, where he most recently served as president of the Global Procurement Qualification Management Department. Huawei has since updated its executive directory on its official website, removing Peng's biography.

India's smartphone shipments fell 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, reaching a decade low as higher memory costs pushed device prices up. The downturn highlights affordability pressures for consumers and could prompt manufacturers to raise prices, reshape portfolios, and rely on premium segments globally.

India's electronics and IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has set October 23, 2028, as the date by which the country will have mobile phones that are designed, manufactured, and branded domestically, as New Delhi seeks to move beyond assembling devices for foreign brands.

Chinese smartphone brands have brought high-refresh-rate OLED displays to market ahead of Samsung Electronics and Apple, with Visionox and BOE supplying 185Hz panels for the iQOO Neo 12 and RedMagic 12 Pro+, respectively. The move sets a new standard for smartphone applications, where power consumption remains a major concern, and has drawn market attention.