IF / News

Chipsets

MediaTek GM Xie Qingjiang reveals information of Helio P30, which is manufactured with TSMC’s 12nm. Its ISP supports up to 25MP, Cat. 10, and features 4×2GHz A72 + 4×1.5GHz A53 cores. It also supports LPDDR4, eMMC 5.1 and UFS 2.0. (Laoyaoba, CECB2B)

Hefei government has signed a strategic collaboration with MediaTek. In 2016, Mediatek has invested USD526M in Mainland China, which is about 5.83% of the company’s total assets. The real investment would amount to USD376M. (Laoyaoba, EEPW)

Nearly all companies listed on TrendForce’s revenue ranking of the global top 10 fabless IC design houses for the first quarter posted year-on-year growth. Novatek was the sole exception and saw a slight dip in its revenue compared with the same period a year ago. For IC companies, the growing sources of end-market demand for this year come from networking equipment, data centers, servers and automotive electronics. (Laoyaoba, TrendForce[cn], press, TrendForce, press)

Touch Display

Currently GVO, EDO, CSOT, Tianma and Truly are constructing their own AMOLED production lines, and launching their own products. BOE has announced its Gen-6 flexible AMOLED line has already entered production. According to CINNO Research, in 2016, 99M AMOLED smartphones are bought by consumers in China, which is a 144% growth on year. (NBD, press, Laoyaoba, Laoyaoba)

China’s first Gen-6 flexible AMOLED production line, BOE Chengdu Gen-6 flexible AMOLED production line officially put into production. The production line costs a total investment of CNY46.5B. Design capacity of 48,000 per month glass substrate (glass substrate size 1850× 1500), located in the high-end mobile phone display and emerging mobile display and other products.  (TechNews, BOE, Silicon Investor)

Memory

After Micron, world’s 2^nd largest NOR Flash vendor Cypress will gradually exit low-capacity NOR Flash market, focusing on high-capacity automotive and regulartory areas. With Apple’s new OLED iPhone and more smartphones will be equipped with NOR Flash to increase colour gamut, the shortage will become severe in 2018. (Laoyaoba, Fiscal Standard, UDN)

NOR Flash market is being invaded, yet terminal products still require NOR Flash for internal processing power. Due to increasing shortage and demand, the cost will increase averagely 10% per quarter. TrendForce estimates that every quarter would increase at least 5%, and this will continue till end of 2017. (Sohu, EE World, KK News, 52RD)

Biometrics

CrucialTec has been granted a patent revolves around what the company calls its “Display Fingerprint Solution” (DFS). The technology can enhance the touch sensitivity capabilities on a fixed part of a smartphone display panel, allowing it to scan fingerprints.  (Android Headlines, Phone Arena, The Investor)

Smartphones

Xiaomi has announced that the Redmi 3S series reached a record-breaking milestone of 4M sales in India. (Gizmo China, Android Headlines, BGR, iFeng, IT Home)

Vice president of TCL North America, Chris Larson, said the company plans to launch official TCL phones in the US later in 2017, though he declined to give a specific time frame. (Laoyaoba, Tencent, KK News, Business Insider)

South Korean smartphone makers, such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, are gathering up their reins to retake the Chinese market again. (Business Korea, Android Headlines)

Samsung Electronics has sold 5M Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus handsets globally so far, the company said. (Laoyaoba, ZDNet)

Huawei Y3 2017 entry phone is launched – 5” FWVGA display, MediaTek MT6737M / MT6580 processor, 8MP + 2MP cameras, 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM, Android 6.0, 2200mAh battery. (My Drivers, Huawei, Gizbot)

Huawei Y7 is unveiled – 5.5” HD  2.5D curved display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, 12MP PDAF + 8MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, Android 7.0, 4000mAh battery. (Android Headlines, Huawei)

Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) is announced with AT&T – 5” HD display, Samsung Exynos 7570 processor, 5MP + 2MP cameras, 1.5GB RAM, 16GB storage, Android 7.0, 2600mAh battery, USD180. (GSM Arena, AT&T, Sam Mobile)

Motorola released Moto C and C Plus: Moto C – 5” FWVGA display, MediaTek MT6737M processor, 5MP + 2MP cameras, 1GB RAM, 8 / 16GB storage, Android 7.0, 2350mAh battery, EUR89. Moto C Plus – 5” HD display, MediaTek MT6737 processor, 8MP + 2MP cameras, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, 4000mAh battery, EUR119.  (Android Authority, Motorola, Gizmo China, GSM Arena)

Vernee Thor E is announced – 5” HD  in-cell touch display, MediaTek octa-core processor, 13MP + 5MP cameras, 3GB RAM, 16GB ROM, Android 7.0, 5020mAh battery,  9V2A quick charge, USD110. (Phone Arena, Vernee)

HTC U11 is announced – 5.5” QHD Super LCD 5 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 12MP UltraPixel 3 1.4µm + 16MP cameras, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, USB Type-C, LTE (1Gbps), Edge Sense, 3000mAh battery, EUR749. (GSM Arena, Android Central, Android Headlines, Forbes)

Wearables

Asustek Computer is likely to discontinue the development of its ZenWatch product line as sales of its smartwatch devices have been lower than expected, according to sources of Taiwan’s supply chain. Shipments of the ZenWatch family products from the supply chain total 5,000-6,000 units a month on average currently, noting that Asustek outsources the production of the ZenWatch 3 to Pegatron. (CN Beta, The Verge, Android Authority, Digitimes, press, Sohu)

According to Daniel O’Brien, HTC’s Vive General Manager, HTC Vive version 2 will be coming at some point but when that happens is going to depend on innovations and advancement in technology.  (Android Headlines, Road to VR, TechRadar, VRzu)

Internet of Things

Huawei has signed a MoU with Toshiba to collaborate on the integration of NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) for the development of “Smart Factory” solutions. (Huawei, PR Newswire, Laoyaoba)

Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car company, will work with ride-sharing service Lyft to develop new autonomous vehicle technologies. (The Verge, NY Times, TechCrunch, iFanr, WSJ)