IF / News

Touch Display

Foxconn Technology Group plans to officially break ground for its southeastern Wisconsin manufacturing complex in Jun 2018. The Taiwanese electronics giant plans to build a USD10B flat-screen manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant in Racine County. (Laoyaoba, Journal Sentinel, Fox 6 Now, Sina)

Thanks to strong rush orders from China smartphone makers, Taiwan-based suppliers of LCD driver ICs are all optimistic about revenue growths in the second quarter of 2018, but their actual performances may hinge largely on whether they can get sufficient foundry support amid the increasingly tight capacity at 8-inch wafer fabs in Taiwan and China, according to Digitimes. In Apr 2018, Taiwan’s LCD driver IC makers already posted mixed revenue performances.  (Yahoo, Digitimes, press)

LG Display (LGD) plans to ramp up the production capacity of OLED TV panels at its 8.5G line in order to meet demand from new clients including Loewe, Arcelik and Hisense, according to Digitimes. LGD’s 8.5G line currently has a production capacity of 60,000 glass substrates a month, and the company plans to raise the capacity to 70,000 substrates a month in 2H18. (Digitimes, press, 163, iFeng)

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has published a patent application submitted by Lenovo that describes a laptop sporting a flexible screen that wraps around the lid. This screen is divided into two areas: the main window (front) that typically view on laptops, and the wrap-around area that may or may not stretch across the lid’s surface (back).  (Digital Trends, USPTO, Xuehua)

Storage

According to Unigroup Guoxin VP Du Linhu and Ruan Liying, the company’s DRAM chipset and related storage memory products have a complete portfolio and system. In particular, currently Unigroup’s DD3 is the main product, and DD4 is hopefully to complete in 2018. However, as the production is limited, the shipment is not going to be huge. The company also has emphasized that it is looking for DRAM ODM collaboration. (My Drivers, Tencent, East Money, Zhihu)

Material

Created by the Glass Research Institute in Bengbu City, a unit of the engineering technical platform of China National Building Material (CNBM), the glass is only 0.12mm thick. The ultra-thin glass can be used widely in the electronic information sector, such as for screens for cellphones, computers and TVs.  (CN Beta, Xinhuanet, ECNS, Urdu Point)

Phone

According to DeviceAtlas, devices with 4 GB RAM increased their presence in 19 of 20 observed markets, while Android lost ground to iOS both in developed markets like the US and in developing ones like Egypt. A big exception is India where Jio Reliance reintroduced feature phones with 4G and KaiOS, and reached 15% market share, beating Apple into third. (DeviceAtlas, report, GSM Arena, 199IT, Sohu)

Samsung has put the Galaxy A6 and A6+ on quarterly update cycle. Samsung has different update policies for its devices—the more expensive smartphones get more frequent updates—every month. This means the Galaxy S, Note and some of the A series smartphones. (Android Headlines, GSM Arena, Samsung)

ZTE Corp has reportedly told U.S. authorities that its failure to fully comply with a U.S. settlement agreement resolving sanctions-busting charges was due to faults in its internal controls, not from a plan of systematic deception. (My Drivers, WSJ)

On 25 Apr 2018 Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has announced that Xiaomi pledges to limit its profit margin on hardware, which includes smartphones, internet of things (IoT) and lifestyle products, to below 5% as the company aims to increase its customer base by driving cost efficiency and offering its products at a competitive price range. (TechNews, Ping West, Xuehua, Fortune, Live Mint)

Automotive

Faraday Future (FF) founder Jia Yueting has issued a letter to staff to celebrate its 4^th anniversary and provide an update on the company’s progress. FF will expand to China with its headquarters in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou plant will soon start construction. (TechNews, CN Beta, Pandaily)