Chip suppliers engaged in Apple's supply chain started to see orders pick up in June. On the other hand, chip demand from the non-Apple camp has been slow, according to sources at backend houses, which do not expect orders from their non-Apple customers to rise substantially until the fourth quarter.

Fabless firms including MediaTek and HiSilicon continue to slow down their pace of orders, said the sources, which warned of disappointing handset-chip shipments from the non-Apple camp in the third quarter.

Chip orders from the non-Apple camp should have picked up starting April and grown through August, but orders seem to have been pushed back in 2017 as companies adopt a wait-and-see approach before the launch of Apple's upcoming iPhones which they believe will come with revolutionary features, the sources indicated.

In addition, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has seen its non-Apple customers express more interest in the foundry's 12nm node manufacturing, an enhanced version of its 16nm process technology, than its 10nm process, the sources said. The upcoming iPhone series is set to feature Apple's A-series chips built using TSMC's 10nm process technology.

Apple's iPhone sales are expected to sustain demand for TSMC's 10nm mobile chips through the first quarter of 2018, the sources added.

For non-smartphone applications, such as IoT, demand for 28nm chips remains strong as the process offers a better price to performance ratio, the sources indicated. Manufacturing quotes for 28nm are about US$2,500 per wafer, while those for 16nm process are much higher at around US$5,400. The 28nm process also provides stable yield rates for more dies.