8-20: Huawei new product line Nova targeting women; Huawei plans to build production fab in India; Xiaomi is preparing to enter US market; etc.
| Chipset |
| 2015 Intel unveiled a reference design for 2-in-1 tablets using the company’s Skylake processors. Now the company is providing tips for making thinner 2-in-1 tablets. (Digital Trends, CN Beta, Liliputing)
|
| Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, together with General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt, took the stage at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco and discussed the future of smart cities. (Android Headlines, Venture Beat, Sohu)
|
| Similar to HP, Zotac, MSI, and Dell, Intel is showing off a VR-ready PC that can be worn like a vest. The prototype has an Intel Core i7-6785R Skylake processor with Iris Pro 580 graphics, 8GB of LPDDR3-2166 MHz RAM, solid state storage, and 2 separate batteries in different parts of the vest. (CN Beta, Liliputing, Fortune, Tom’s Hardware)
|
| AMD CEO Lisa Su indicates that the company’s focus is on high-performance CPUs and GPUs. AMD said its Zen launch is still on track for desktop processors coming in 1H17, while server chips will come in 2H17. Some PC chips may ship to customers at the end of 2016. Zen is made by GlobalFoundries with 14nm FinFET. (Engadget, 163, Tencent, OfWeek, Market Watch, WCCF Tech) |
| The 6th-ranked producer of the semiconductor base material GlobalWafers will pay USD683 million for currently 4th-ranked SunEdison Semiconductor. (GlobalWafers, TechNews, Asia Nikkei, Electroiq, Investor Place) |
|
Touch Display |
| Motorola US suggests that Samsung stole its Always On Display feature, incorporated in the Galaxy S7 and the latest Galaxy Note 7. (CN Beta, PC Mag, Tech Spot, Softpedia)
|
| Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will promote development of a flexible AMOLED and PMOLED supply chain in Taiwan, aiming to build a production cluster of materials, equipment and modules for such flexible panels. ITRI has developed 7.07” inward foldable touch AMOLED, a prototype based on a flexible substrate instead of glass with thickness less than 0.15mm. (Digitimes, press, OfWeek)
|
| Taiwan pushing development of OLED with local panel manufacturers. AUO is leading the development, follows by Innolux, preparing to enter OLED mass production end of 2016, and expects mass production in 2017. CPT Fujian 6G fab is entering phase 2 production. Sharp with Foxconn’s investment expects to mass produce OLED panels in 2018. (CN Beta, 51Touch)
|
|
Memory |
| Cho Hee-chang, a senior research fellow at the Memory Business Division at Samsung Electronics, explained that the 1.2GBps transfer speeds of UFS 2.0 and 2.1 are expected to leap to 2.4GBps in 1H18. (Android Authority, Money DJ, Android Headlines, China Byte)
|
|
Battery |
| An MIT spinout SolidEnergy Systems is preparing to commercialize a novel rechargable lithium metal battery that offers double the energy capacity of the lithium ion batteries. The battery essentially swaps out a common anode material, graphite, for very thin, high-energy lithium-metal foil, which can hold more ions. (CN Beta, N4BB, Digital Trends, MIT)
|
|
Biometrics |
| The penetration rate for fingerprint-recognition sensors in the smartphone market will rise above 50% in 2017 from about 40% in 2016, according to Digitimes. The ratio reached only 20% in 2015 indicating demand for fingerprint sensors has been growing robustly. fingerprint sensor prices have fallen as low as USD3 in the 2H16. (Digitimes, press, Phone Arena, ZOL, Sohu, Hexun) |
| Google has retained the services of a third-party firm Appen that has begun hiring Reddit users with specific accents for the purpose of improving Google’s voice recognition engine. (Android Headlines, The Verge, Quartz, Digital Trends) |
|
Connectivity |
| US-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) FreedomPop has launched a new offer that gives free access to WhatsApp in over 30 countries. This offer is a new strategy to get more people to sign up to its service in the US. (Android Headlines, NDTV, 9to5Mac) |
|
Smartphones |
| Global sales of smartphones to end-users totaled 344 million units in 2Q16, a 4.3% increase over the same period in 2015, according to Gartner. Overall sales of mobile phones contracted by 0.5% with only 5 vendors (Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, vivo, Samsung) from the top 10 showing growth. (Android Headlines, Gartner, press, 199IT, TechWeb, My Drivers)
|
| In the Oracle case against Google, Oracle have told a federal court that their lost copyright trial case against Google should be dismissed because they were denied evidence. (CN Beta, Digital Trends, Business Insider) |
| After a call by U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s commissioner, Apple and 32 other companies are banding together to make an industry-wide organized resistance against the expanding “robocall” scourge. (Apple Insider, FCC, Sina) |
| Samsung’s Milk Music service will end on 22 Sept. 2016. Fans should switch over to Slacker instead, which powered the service, the company said. (Android Authority, CN Beta, Samsung) |
| Currently Huawei product lines include M, P, G series, sharing one similarity – they are masculine (2016 survey showed 71% of Huawei users are male). Thus, it is rumored Huawei is preparing a new product line targeting female, namely Nova. (CN Beta, 163, My Drivers, Android Headlines, Pocket Now, GSM Arena)
|
| Huawei will soon start manufacturing smartphones In India, and the announcement would be made within a month. Huawei aims to gain 10% of India market share by end of 2017. (Android Headlines, ZOL, 52RD, All China Tech, Media Nama) |
| Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra indicates that Xiaomi is preparing to enter the US smartphone market “in the near future”, employing the same online sales and social media marketing tactics. (CN Beta, ChinaZ, DoNews, Gizmo China, Yahoo, Bloomberg) |
| OnePlus will be closing down their Beijing and Shanghai stores on the 22 Aug 2016. (Gizmo China, CN Beta) |
| Apple is reportedly simplifying the branding of its retail chain by removing ‘store’ from Apple Store. (The Verge, Daily Mail, India Times, Yahoo, 163) |
|
Wearables |
| McDonald’s discontinues Happy Meal “fitness” bands “Step-It”, due to cases of skin irritation. (Phone Arena, Associated Press, Engadget)
|
| Meizu Mix is announced with Taobao Crowdf-unding Platform – analogue watch, a collection of LED lights, Bluetooth 4.0 LTE, water-resistant up to 30m under water, 270mAh battery, priced from CNY1000. (Android Headlines, CN Beta, First Post, GSM Arena)
|
| Jabra’s headphones Sport Pulse can be prescribed by a doctor to monitor fitness. Sport Pulse wireless headphones will send exercise stats to physicians via TrainerMD. (CN Beta, Engadget, Jabra)
|
|
Internet of Things |
| Gree Electric Appliances is stepping into the fast-growing new-energy vehicle market by acquiring Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy Co Ltd, a local electric-vehicle producer, for CNY13 billion. (CN Beta, IT168, China Daily) |
| 2 Volkswagen suppliers— CarTrim, which makes seats, and ES Automobilguss, which makes cast iron parts needed to make gearboxes, have stopped deliveries to the giant German carmaker, accusing it of canceling contracts without explanation or offering compensation. (WSJ, India Times, Fortune, CN Beta, CNR, Sohu) |
