The first article mentions specifically weaker sales for smartphones (as well as US/China tensions) as the culprit. Makes sense that this industry is underperforming no? The (high-end) smart phone market has become saturated, and there is no need to buy smart phones anywhere near as quickly as phone manufacturers want us to, and especially not at flagship phone prices.

Seems more the case of market saturation than signs of a recession.

> However, network communication- and server-related applications are likely to continue seeing growths, Lee added.

Other markets seem to be doing just dandy

So what is the difference between saturation and recession? To me it seems like you're going to invest and pile on until you hit saturation, in which case you have to cut back because the demand isn't there. That cut back is recession (for that market), no?