IF / News

Chipsets

ZTE is set to invest more than 10% of its sales revenue on research and development (R&D) focusing on 5G chips and edge computing, said ZTE President Xu Ziyang. ZTE will focus on the upgrading of 5G chips and end-to-end solutions. (CN Beta, Global Times)

Intel is reportedly considering placing chipset design orders with Taiwan IC designer ASMedia Technology, which is already a partner of AMD, as part of its efforts to fend off competition from AMD, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, Sina)

Touch Display

Tianma is showcasing a 7.4” WQHD AMOLED display panel that comes with a bending radius of 3mm, with a bending angle of 0 – 180 degrees, module thickness of less than 0.25mm, and an aspect ratio of 21:9. Tianma reveals that its foldable screen substrate is made out of plastic instead of glass for flexibility. This also makes it quite thin and portable. The 7.4” screen comes with a resolution of 3360×1440 while ensuring the bezels are thin at 0.9mm. (CN Beta, Gizmo China, Digitimes)

TCL Group has indicated that TCL’s LTPS-AMOLED flexible production line with a planned production capacity of 45K per month in Wuhan has commenced operation. In 1Q19, the shipment of LTPS products of CSOT t3 production line reached 27.28M, ranking third in the world. T3 has also become the largest single LTPS plant in the world. (GizChina, IT Home)

Memory

Huawei has reinstated to SD Association and Wi-Fi Alliance list of partners. The board of members consisting a list of 1,000 parties on the company’s official website has again listed Huawei Technologies name. The same applies to the WiFi association sponsor list. (Gizmo China, SD Association, Wi-Fi Alliance, CN Beta)

The world’s top-3 memory chip vendors are expected to see their sales for 2Q19 hit the year’s lowest quarterly levels after experiencing remarkable sequential revenue declines in 1Q19, along with customers likely to deplete their inventories in late 2Q19, according to Digitimes Research. (Digitimes, press, Digitimes)

Micron Technology is striving to mitigate the impact of the US trade ban on Huawei, according to the US memory chip vendor. (Digitimes, CN Beta, Barron’s)

Biometrics

In the update of EMUI9.1.0.162 (C00E160R1P12) of Huawei P30 series mobile phones, Huawei has brought about the function upgrade of face unlocking – adding a new alternate face function to identify another face. (My Drivers, Sina, Gear Best)

The Lockport City School District in New York will start testing a facial and object recognition system called “Aegis” on 3 Jun 2019. This will make it the first in the US to pilot a facial recognition surveillance system on its students and faculty. (Engadget, BuzzFeed News, CN Beta)

Touch module supplier General Interface Solution (GIS) plans to ramp up sharply its production capacity for in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor modules in 2H19 to meet rising demand, according to company chairman Chou Hsien-ying. The company is currently rolling out in-display fingerprint sensor modules at a rate of 2M~2.5M units a month, and the output will soar starting Jul 2019 when some new production facilities come to online, Chou said. (Digitimes, press, China Times, China Times, 51Touch)

Connectivity

Amazon.com is allegedly interested in buying prepaid cellphone wireless service Boost Mobile from U.S. carriers T-Mobile and Sprint. Amazon is considering buying Boost mainly because the deal would allow it to use T-Mobile’s wireless network for at least 6 years. (Phone Arena, Reuters, Ping West)

Sprint has announced the initial launch of its mobile 5G network, bringing 5G connectivity to Sprint customers in areas of Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City. (Mac Rumors, Sprint, CN Beta)

Phone

Rosenblatt states it believes Apple will be reducing its orders for “older iPhone model production” slightly for 3Q19, though declines to mention exactly what models will be affected by the change. Rosenblatt continues to briefly cover the “increasing tension between the US and China” in relation to Apple, believing the iPhone will continue to lose market share. (Apple Insider, CN Beta)

Samsung aims to double its online smartphone sales in India in 2019 to USD1B. Asim Warsi, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, has revealed that Samsung has sold within 3 months 2M M series (INR7,990~INR17,990), in addition to over 5M Galaxy A phones in 70 days. Business-to-consumer sales in the online market are expected to be USD4.5B in 2019and, if that is so, Samsung should be around 25% of the market. (Zee Business, Reuters, Business Standard, NDTV, CN Beta)

Motorola Moto Z4 is announced – 6.4” 1080×2340 FHD+ OLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, rear 48MP + front 25MP, 4+128GB, Android 9.0, under display fingerprint, 3600mAh 15W fast charging, USD500. (CN Beta, Android Central, GSM Arena, Motorola)

Meizu 16Xs is official – 6.2” 1080×2232 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, rear tri 48MP-8MP ultrawide-5MP + front 16MP, 6+64/128GB, Android 9.0, under display fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh 18W fast charging, CNY1,698 / CNY1,998. (GizChina, iFanr, CN Beta)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Volvo and Varjo, a Finnish developer of augmented-reality (AR) headsets, want to inject more tech into the process of shaping clay models and interior mockups. The two companies have created what they claim a “world’s first mixed reality approach” to car development. Volvo claims testers can wear one of Varjo’s XR-1 developer edition headset while driving a real car, overlaying virtual elements on top of what the driver actually sees. (Digital Trends, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Upload VR, Auto Testing)

VR / AR startup Leap Motion has been sold to a rival business named UltraHaptics. The price for the company is reportedly around USD30M — it is said to be valued at 10 times as much in 2013. Leap Motion, which is founded in 2010, developed sensors to track hand movements for VR use. (Engadget, WSJ, The Verge, UltraHaptics, Sohu, Technode)

Chinese startup nreal is launching nreal light, which features 2 cameras up front for tracking objects in real-time, and in conjunction with other sensors you get 6DoF (six degrees of freedom). The nreal light customer kit contains a pair of glasses that can be hooked up over USB-C to any phone powered by the Snapdragon 855. nreal also teamed up with carriers to stream latency-free mixed reality content on 5G networks. (CN Beta, VentureBeat, Android Central, nreal)

Rokid Vision glasses can project games, phone apps and more in front of user’s eyes. The Vision has two displays, thus allowing for a 3D stereo display. It has 6º  of freedom, 45º field of vision, and a binocular 1,280×720 resolution. (Gizmo China, Engadget, New Atlas, CN Beta)

Automotive

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle company, has announced that it would resume testing its trucks on Phoenix freeways. The company pulled its Class 8 trucks off the road back in 2017, after some brief tests in the state. (Engadget, Twitter)

Lexus has announced that Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto will be standard features in its new 2020 Lexus RX in the United States, marking the first time that either software platform is available in the luxury crossover SUV. (Mac Rumors, Lexus)

Payment

The new Apple Card launches 2019 summer, and it could reap as much as USD1B in annual revenues for the Apple within a few years, according to estimates from Alliance Bernstein. To reach the USD1B mark, the Apple Card would have to become one of the largest credit cards in the industry, rivaling the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Amex Platinum. (Apple Insider, Business Insider)