11-11: Samsung Electronics will produce over 1M units in initial stock for its upcoming foldable phone; Samsung is allegedly developing a new Galaxy M line-up of phones; etc.
Touch Display
DJ Koh, the head of Samsung mobile business, Samsung Electronics will produce over 1M units in initial stock for its upcoming foldable phone. The company may raise the production volume of its foldable devices depending on market reception. (CN Beta, Straits Times, ZDNet, Yonhap News)
Shipments of small- to medium-size LCD panels by Taiwan makers are expected to continue to decline 11.3% sequentially in 4Q18, having seen such shipments suffered a slight 1.3% drop to 309M units in 3Q18, according to Digitimes Research. In 3Q18, shipments of panels to the tablet and handset sectors dropped 12.4% and 1.7%, respectively, affecting overall panel shipments in the three-month period. (Digitimes, press, Digitimes)
Sensory
Google’s patent details a system for ‘Classifying Facial Expressions Using Eye-Tracking Cameras’. According to the description, the method uses “one or more eye tracking sensors implemented into one or more head mounted devices”. Google wants to use an algorithm to scan a user’s expression in real-time and then translate that into a virtual expression on their avatar. (Upload VR, USPTO, Sina)
Connectivity
TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the modified polyimide (MPI) will replace Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) and become the mainstream antenna technology of Apple’s 2H19 new iPhone models. He predicts that new iPhone models—including 6.5” OLED, 5.8” OLED, and 6.1” LCD will adopt 4 MPI antenna and 2 LCP antenna. (Apple Insider, CN Beta, 9to5Mac)
China Academy of Engineering (CAE) academician Wu He Quan reveals that China 5G licenses will be released as earliest as end of 2018. China Mobile VP Li Hui Zhe also reveals that China Mobile 5G commercialization begins in 2019, and will enter commercial uze in 2020. The first 5G smartphone will be launched in 1H19. (CN Beta, China News, Xinhuanet)
Phone
BlackBerry is allegedly in talks to buy cybersecurity company Cylance Inc for as much as USD1.5B. Irvine, California-based Cylance develops AI-based products to prevent cyberattacks on companies and recently considered filing for an IPO. (CN Beta, Business Insider, Reuters)
SuperData has reported that gamers who pay for subscriptions spend about 45% more for games than non-subscribers. That is one reason why big game publishers like Sony, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts are betting more on subscription services. According to SuperData, subscribers also spend twice as much on in-game content when compared to non-subscribers. (VentureBeat, Game Reactor, Gaming Bolt, CNITEYES, iGeek)
Samsung is allegedly developing a new Galaxy M line-up of phones. The Galaxy M series is expected to be a consolidation of all of Samsung’s current budget lineups—Galaxy J, On, and C series, which will reportedly disappear. (GizChina, Sam Mobile, IT Home, Sina, CN Beta)
Having ramped up their combined smartphone shipments by 6.5% on year to 192M units in 3Q18, China-based vendors are likely to see a single-digit shipment decrease in 4Q18 due to weakening demand in the domestic market and competition resulting from the availability of Apple iPhone, according to Digitimes Research. (Digitimes, press, 199IT)
Chinese vendors building factory in India is not rare nowadays. OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi have entered the Indian market, and have already developing offline retailers. For localization, OPPO and vivo have already decided to build factories in India to lower the tax and improve its competitiveness. Additionally, vivo has set up a number of after sales services in the rural areas. Huawei has also started to pay attention to the Indian market. In Aug 2018, the company executive revealed that the company will open 100 retail shops in India. (36Kr, Sina, CN Beta)
IDC reveals worldwide digital transformation predictions. IDC’s market leading analytical understanding and insights are the result of extensive market research and survey data from over 3,000 companies worldwide. (CN Beta, IDC, press)
Home
Midea Group has announced that it will invest INR13.5B (USD185.1M) in Supa Parner, Pune to set up a 270,000-square-meter technology park there. The complex, once put into production, will have an annual production capacity of 500K units of refrigerators, washing machines, water purifiers and water heaters. It will also be able to manufacture household air conditioners and air condition compressors of around 1.5M and 4.5M units a year, respectively. TCL is also mulling over plans to set up a plant in India, after the company recorded a 120% jump in the first-half television sales in the country. (India Times, Financial Chronicle, Business Times)
Artificial Intelligence
According to Deloitte, more than 500M units of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices will sport chips with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) features by the end of 2018; that by 2023, roughly 43% of all AI inference (i.e., analysis) will be performed on-device; and that in the next 4 years, annual shipments of devices with embedded AI will increase from 79M in 2017 to 1.2B. (Deloitte, report, VentureBeat, Sina)