IF / News

Touch Display

According to IHS Markit, in 2019 most of LTPS LCD’s screen punching orders came from Huawei, but it is highly likely that subsequent orders will be cut. Therefore, the panel maker will have the capacity to release to other customers. The penetration rate of the screen punching product is limited by the matching camera supply and punching capacity, so the water droplet notch will continue for some time. (IHS Markit report)

Memory

According to IHS Markit, outlook dims for the year 2019 as the demand outlook for PCs, servers, smartphones, and other end consumer products remains weak through at least 3Q19. Revenue in 2019 is expected to reach USD77B, a 22% reduction from its all time high in 2018. Gradual recovery is expected in the follow on years, with a CAGR of 1.9% from 2018 to 2023. (IHS Markit report)

The NAND industry quickly moved into oversupply in 2018 as vendors successfully completed its 3D NAND transition from 2D planar technology, and has continued in oversupply as vendors also transitioned to 64 layer NAND during the year. The market is expected to remain in oversupply throughout at least 1H19. Seasonal increased demand expected in 2H19 should help to balance the market and reduce any remaining inventory to manageable levels. (IHS Markit report)

Biometrics

Shanghai-based OXi Technology and Taiwan-based EgisTec are the 2 main suppliers of TFT based optical fingerprint recognition solutions, others such as ChipOne and VKANSEE are also carrying out the development. OXi is growing rapidly, and they hope to achieve commercial mass production in 3Q / 4Q19 while EgisTec hopes to achieve commercial mass production in the 1H20. Panel makers involved in TFT based solutions include Tianma, BOE and AUO. Additionally, CTC provides the LTPS circuit backplane for Qualcomm’s ultrasonic solutions. (IHS Markit report)

Connectivity

President of Huawei’s 5G product line, Yang Chaobin, has indicated that the boundaries of each generation of mobile communication technology are very obvious, and the next 10 years will be 5 years of 5G. Huawei will continue to increase investment in the 5G field. Now Huawei has invested more than 10,000 people on the 5G network. It is estimated that Huawei’s R&D investment in 5G in 2019 will exceed CNY10B in 2019. (CN Beta, Reuters CN)

Huawei has signed a deal with Russian telecoms firm MTS to develop 5G technology in Russia. The companies will develop next-generation 5G networks in Russia over 2020. The deal will see “the development of 5G technologies and the pilot launch of fifth generation networks in 2019 and 2020”. (The Verge, CN Beta, BBC)

Phone

LG’s mobile division is planning to launch a new smartphone series called W, and its first market will be India. They will be with three cameras, a notch on the front and “Never before Prices”. (GSM Arena, Amazon, IT Home, Tencent, Smartprix)

vivo is reportedly gearing up to introduce a new Z-series smartphone in India. Also, it also planning to introduce its S-lineup in the country. The Z-series smartphones will be sold exclusively through online channels. However, the S-series phones will be only available offline. (Gizmo China, 91Mobiles)

Google is going to acquire Looker, a analytics startup that has raised more than USD280M. It is paying USD2.6B for the privilege and adding the company to Google Cloud. Looker makes business-intelligence software that consolidates data and makes it centrally accessible to be analyzed. (CN Beta, Google, Forbes, TechCrunch)

Realme CEO Madhav Sheth has revealed that the company is launching a 5G phone as soon as year 2019. Realme has plans to bring 5G mobile phones “globally”. It also is eager to bring the latest devices to India. (GSM Arena, Gizmo China, Sohu)

Facebook Inc is allegedly no longer allowing pre-installation of its apps on Huawei phones, which include Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. (Phone Arena, GizChina, The Verge, Reuters, CN Beta)

Huawei Enjoy 9e is launched in China – 6.09” 1560×720 HD+ IPS, MediaTek Helio P35 MT6765, rear 13MP + front 8MP, 3+32/64GB, Android 9.0, no fingerprint scanner, face unlock, 3020mAh, CNY799 / CNY999. (My Drivers, Gizmo China, IT Home)

Automotive

Subaru and Toyota will partner to create a brand-new electric vehicle platform. The Japanese companies will jointly develop a compact SUV on this architecture, a version of which will be sold under both brands. Toyota will bring its vehicle electrification expertise to the table, while Subaru will provide the all-wheel-drive system. (CN Beta, Business Times, Reuters, CNET)

German car manufacturer BMW has opened a new USD1B (EUR890M) production facility in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosi. This will produce the next-generation 3 Series sedan for sale in the U.S. and other markets. (CN Beta, DW, CNET, Auto News)

India reportedly plans to order taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola to convert 40% of their fleet of cars to electric by Apr 2026. Uber and Ola, both backed by Softbank Group, would need to start converting their fleet as early as 2020 to achieve 2.5% electrification by 2021, 5% by 2022, 10% by 2023 before hiking it to 40%. (CN Beta, TechCrunch, Reuters, Business Standard)

Gatik AI, which is an autonomous vehicle startup, has raised USD4.5M in funding and Walmart as a customer, is aiming for the sweet middle spot in the world of logistics. Gatik AI is developing a business that will do short hauls of goods between businesses using autonomous light-commercial trucks and vans. (TechCrunch, VentureBeat, AUVSI, Teller China)

Toyota Motor has announced they will speed up their sales plan for hybrid and electric vehicles by 5 years. Toyota now targets selling more than 5.5M of the vehicles worldwide by 2025. To meet the target, Toyota will start procuring batteries from Japanese makers such as Toshiba as well as China’s BYD. Toyota will also co-develop new EVs with Suzuki and Daihatsu, aiming to launch more than 10 models between 2020 and the early 2020’s. (CN Beta, Asia Nikkei, Reuters, My Drivers)

Payment

Apple has unveiled a new tool dubbed “CryptoKit”, which will debut as an update in iOS 13. CryptoKit will allow developers to avoid lower-level interfaces by freeing developers from managing raw pointers and automatically overwriting sensitive data during memory deallocation. (CN Beta, Apple, Coin Desk, Coin Telegraph)