9-28: Lenovo to lay off 1000 Moto employees; BlackBerry to stop developing hardware smartphone; Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E / 600E announced; etc.
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Chipset |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E and the 600E are announced targeting IoT application, with the former clocked at 1.2GHz with an Adreno 306 GPU, while the latter is clocked at 1.5GHz with an Adreno 320 GPU. Qualcomm is also teaming with Arrow Electronics to make these stand-alone processors available to small and medium-size manufacturers. (Ubergizmo, Engadget, EE Times, Phone Arena, 163)
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| NVIDIA revealed its next-gen chip for autonomous vehicles. The chip is code-named Xavier and said to be able to be able to handle 20 trillion operations per second while using only about 20 watts of power. (Liliputing, NVIDIA, AnandTech, My Drivers)
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Touch Display |
| Apple has increased its part and component orders for iPhone 7 devices, with order visibility for 4Q16 to be 20~30% higher than expected, according to Digitimes. Touch panel makers TPK Holding and General Interface Solution (GIS) shared the touch panel orders for iPhone 7 devices. Shipments of the iPhone 7 devices from ODMs are expected to reach 80~84 million units in 2H16. (Digitimes, press, CN Beta) |
| The next flagship smartphone from LG, i.e., G6, reportedly will not come with a curved OLED display due to supply issue. The full-metal body and glass cover will also likely be absent due to cost issues. (Android Headlines, ZDNet, Trusted Reviews, Chosun Biz, CN Beta) |
| Microsoft’s chief envisioning officer who is also working on Cortana, Dave Coplin has predicted that the QWERTY keyboard layout will soon die out, and be replaced with facial tracking, and voice and gesture recognition. (Neowin, Softpedia, CN Beta, Evening Standard) |
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Memory |
| North Carolina State University and Samsung Electronics have found a way to boost the speed of computer applications by more than 9%. This technique is called Dense Footprint Cache (DFC). (CN Beta, New Atlas, NC State)
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| Toshiba has more than doubled its operating profit forecast to JPY70 billion (USD695 million), from JPY30 billion, for the first fiscal half, ending September. Strong demand for memory chips for smartphones has contributed to the higher profit. Smartphone shipment in China has been strong this year despite a global lull. (WSJ, Reuters, Barron’s, CN Beta)
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Smartphones |
| CCS Insight expects than in 2016 shipments of mobile phones will slip 1.3% from their level in 2015, with most markets experiencing a difficult year. CCS Insight says mobile phone sales have peaked at around 2 billion devices per year and will stay at this level until 2020. The smartphone component of that total will increase from 75% in 2016 to 90% in 2020, but the explosive growth we have seen in the past 10 years is over, with smartphone sales expected to grow just 4.1% this year. (CN Beta, CCS Insight, press, Mobile News, Vice News, Mobile World Live)
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| Piper Jaffray has performed stock checks of 134 Apple retail stores 9 days after the iPhone 7 launch. The survey showed that 20% of iPhone 7 SKUs were in stock overall, with 34% of the iPhone 7, and 6% of the iPhone 7 Plus models available for purchase. (Apple Insider, Benzinga, CN Beta)
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| Lenovo has officially announced the lay-off in a strategic shift to keep Moto competitive. The company says that the layoffs impact “less than 2 percent of its 55,000 employees” across the world. (Phone Arena, The Verge, Droid-Life,163, Sina) |
| BlackBerry CEO John Chen indicates that the company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners such as Indonesia-based BB Merah Putih. BlackBerry posted fiscal second-quarter results that saw it swing to a loss of USD372 million. (CN Beta, WSJ, The Guardian, CNET, BlackBerry, Phone Arena) |
| Xiaomi has announced that it has sold at least 2.3 million units of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 in India, making it the bestselling in the country online to date. (Android Authority, ZOL, 163)
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| Xiaomi plans to open 1,000 stores by 2020 according to the company’s CEO, Lei Jun. Xiaomi currently has only 25 stores in China. (Android Headlines, Tech in Asia, Shanghai Daily, Huanqiu) |
| Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus are launched, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 processor, featuring 3GB RAM + 64GB ROM / 4GB RAM + 128GB ROM, Android 6.0, ultrasonic fingerprint sensor: Mi 5s – 5.15” FHD IPS LCD display, 12MP PDAF + 4MP cameras, 3200mAh battery, from CNY1999. Mi 5s Plus – 5.7” FHD IPS LCD display, 2×12MP PDAF + 4MP cameras, 3800mAh battery, from CNY2299. (CN Beta, GSM Arena, MIUI, CE, Sina)
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| Elephone C1 is official – 5.5” HD display, MediaTek MT6737 processor, 13MP + 5MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, Android 6.0, LTE, dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor, 2850mAh battery, USD109.99. (Phone Arena, Gizmo China)
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Wearables |
| Gartner projects global sales of head-mounted VR displays will jump from 1.43 million units in 2016 to 39.87 million units in 2020, and Forrester Research says 30 million U.S. consumers will use the technology by 2020. The overlap with augmented reality will grow and open new windows for marketing, particularly among businesses in automotive, travel, hospitality, sports and real estate. (CN Beta, 163, CIO, Bloomberg) |
| Huawei reportedly has been collaborating with Samsung, which leads the open-source development of Tizen, to bring the Linux-based operating system to the company’s next smartwatch. (Android Authority, Korea Herald, CN Beta) |
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Internet of Things |
| Baidu CFO Jennifer Li Xinzhe has reiterated Baidu’s target of initially getting self-driving cars on mainland roads by 2018 and the mass production in 2020. (CN Beta, SCMP, Fortune)
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| Xiaomi founder and TV responsible executive Wang Chuan indicates that Xiaomi TV hardware is not selling at lose, and in 2016 they are not after volume. To exceed LeEco, it can happen anytime. This implies that Xiaomi admits its TV sales volume is not as good as LeEco TV sales. (CN Beta, YeSky, 163) |
| DJI Launches Mavic Pro foldable drone. It has a foldable controller that provides can encrypted 4.3 mile range as well as support for 1080p streaming to a paired smartphone. It costs USD999 with and USD749 without the controller. (Ubergizmo, CN Beta)
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