IF / News

Chipset

Apple’s new A11 chipset, Huawei Kirin 970 and even Mediatek’s Helio X30 / X35 chipsets are said to be manufactured using TSMC’s 10nm process. MediaTek reportedly considers using the same 10nm manufacturing node for its budget Helio P35 chip as well, targeting mid-range phones that cost USD150-400. (CN Beta, Gizmo China)

Samsung Electronics DS (Device Solution) Sector’s System LSI Business Department started working on developing CPU core for 32-bit MCU based on open-source CPU command set architecture (ISA) called ‘RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Compute) V’ since 1H16. (Android Authority, ET News, Ubergizmo, Android Headlines, Feng, CN Beta)

KAIST professor Cho Yong-hoon and his research team recently succeeded in converging photonic crystal particles with paper. The achievement is expected to be widely applied to developing sensors for medical purposes, as paper is highly absorbent and the particles are notable for their extreme sensitivity. (CN Beta, Korea Times, The Dong-A ILBO)

Touch / Display

Samsung Display is granted a patent for a new flexible display structure. The design and technology shown and explained by the patent will allow for bendable displays and foldable smartphones, as well as screens that do not shatter upon impact. (Phone Arena, Android Headlines, USPTO, Patently Mobile, Huanqiu)

Japan Display Inc (JDI) says close to securing JPY100B (USD1.3B) bailout from Innovation Network Corp. (INCJ) of Japan, its largest shareholder. (TechNews, Japan Times)

Sharp will establish early 2017 a wholly owned Chinese subsidiary that will oversee operations in that market. The new unit will be located in Shenzhen within the premises of the Longhua production complex owned by Sharp parent Hon Hai Precision Industry, or Foxconn. (CN Beta, Asian Nikkei)

A joint research team between a KAIST and Kolon Glotech announced that they developed OLED technology that can realize OLEDs on a textile substrate. Textile OLEDs, which are more flexible than plastic and has high device reliability are expected to contribute to the development of comfortable wearable displays. (Business Korea, Phone Arena, OLED-Info, Sohu)

Memory

TrendForce reports that sales of mobile DRAM surged in 3Q16 as the smartphone industry was in its traditional inventory buildup season and the global DRAM market enjoyed an across-the-broad price increase. Consequently, the mobile DRAM revenue for 3Q16 rose by about 16.8% sequentially to around USD4.59B. (TrendForce, press, TrendForce[cn], press, CN Beta)

Battery

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests Apple is turning to a glass sandwich design for its 2017 iPhone to better facilitate wireless charging. He also says that Pegatron will be the sole supplier of the wireless charger as Foxconn is tied up managing the production of the ‘revolutionary’ OLED iPhone. (CN Beta, Apple Insider, Trusted Reviews, MacRumors, 9to5Mac)

Biometrics

Samsung is seeking to diversify suppliers of fingerprint modules for its low-end smartphones. Samsung will reportedly receive the biometric modules for a budget smartphone, dubbed the Galaxy On, from 2 local fingerprint module makers, which likely supply a combined 2M fingerprint modules. (Android Headlines, GSM Arena, The Investor, Tencent)

Smartphones

Xiaomi’s plummeting smartphone sales are of little concern to the company’s bottom line because, according to Xiaomi global VP Hugo Barra: “We could sell 10B smartphones and we wouldn’t make a single dime in profits.” Xiaomi makes its money from connected home devices and its software ecosystem. (CN Beta, Android Authority, Reuters)

Writing for Seeking Alpha, research analyst Robert Castellano believes that Apple iPhone Production In The U.S. is actually straightforward and not expensive. Castellano observed that “Apple doesn’t have to move total iPhone production to the US, just for the 20% purchased in the US and under the jurisdiction of the US government. But any additional costs to manufacture in the US would be spread out over the entire 100% of iPhone sales”. (CN Beta, ITWire, Seeking Alpha, article)

According to Jason Dedrick, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, Apple shifting the assembly to the US would add USD30~40 to the overall cost, partly down to increased labor costs, and the increased transportation and logistics overheads. This, in turn, would add about USD100 to the overall retail price. (YeSky, Quartz, ZDNet, Huanqiu, MIT Technology Review)

CCS Insights predicts Apple will introduce a combined subscription model for its hardware and services in 2018. “The concept of ‘Apple as a service’ builds on the success of Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program,” the analysts said. (CN Beta, Computer World)

Ken Hu, one of the Huawei’s 3 rotating CEOs, has reaffirmed that India would remain a valuable market for the company for the foreseeable future. (Android Authority, Gadgets Now, Tencent, Laoyaoba)

Earlier Nov. 2016, BLU admitted to a significant security breach, which affected approximately 120,000 of its active devices. The New York-based Rosen Law Firm has just announced that it is opening a class action investigation into the matter. (Android Headlines)

PCs / Tablets

Samsung is reportedly in talks with Lenovo for the past few months regarding the sale of Samsung’s PC division. The sales value is being pegged in the region of KRW1T (USD850M). Samsung is represented by international law firm Paul Hastings while Lenovo is being represented by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. (TechNews, First Post, IB Times, ZDNet)

Internet of Things

Electric vehicle maker Faraday Future reportedly may not be able to make its first cars in time to hits its 2017 shipping deadlines. (Financial Times, CN Beta, TechCrunch)