According to research firm DIGITIMES, global smartphone shipments in 2024 are estimated at 1.18 billion units, representing a 4.9% growth. Demand is expected to continue growing in 2025. Looking ahead, India, Southeast Asia, and South America will see strong replacement demand for smartphones. As 5G networks continue to be deployed and expand in these regions, they are expected to further drive smartphone shipments.

Challenges Facing Consumer Electronics

1. Technological and Product Innovation Pressure:

With the rapid development of technologies such as AI and 5G, new innovations continue to emerge. Product life cycles are shortened to 6–12 months, leading to intense competition. Consumers demand more diverse performance features, driving component miniaturization and increasing assembly precision requirements..

 2. Manufacturing and Supply Chain Challenges:

• Unstable component supply:

Semiconductor shortages, and key parts (battery materials, rare earth metals) are easily affected by geopolitical factors, leading to supply disruptions.pply Chain Challenges:

• Rising production costs:

Labor costs and raw material prices continue to rise, increasing overall manufacturing expenses.

3. Quality and Yield Issues:

• Smaller component sizes and higher precision requirements mean even slight deviations can cause defects or product failures.

4. Labor and Automation Transition:

• Labor shortages: Low-cost manufacturing hubs (such as China and Southeast Asia) are facing workforce shortages.

• Automation investment costs: Transitioning to smart manufacturing requires significant investment in robotic arms and AI inspection equipment.

Energy-Saving Strategies

1. Low-Carbon Design:

During the design phase, the product’s lifecycle—from design, manufacturing, usage, to recycling—should be evaluated to ensure compliance with environmental standards. Continuous design optimization is needed to improve environmental performance, such as using eco-friendly materials, reducing hazardous substances, enhancing energy efficiency and durability, and making products easier to recycle and reuse, thereby reducing resource consumption and environmental pollution.

2. Smart Energy Management:

By integrating smart energy management systems, manufacturers can monitor power consumption and production bottlenecks in real time. Combined with visual inspection systems, this enables real-time monitoring of production lines and equipment, detecting abnormal energy use and achieving automated scheduling.

1. Modular Design:

Adopting modular product structures helps reduce design change costs and accelerate new product introduction. For example, the HI-MORE GT robotic arm uses a modular control architecture, supporting 360 programmable inputs and 288 programmable I/Os. By simply replacing modules, production lines can be quickly switched and new products introduced efficiently.

Customer Issues and Improvement Solutions in the Electronics Industry