IF / News

Camera

Lu Weibing, president of Xiaomi Group and general manager of Redmi brand, has indicated that the application of Camera under Panel (CuP) on mobile phones can achieve a true full display effect without sacrificing space, but currently there are still many difficulties in implementing the technology. The current screen PPI is about 400, and the PPI is at this level. The light transmittance in the camera is very low, which seriously affects the picture quality. If the PPI is lowered and the transmittance is increased, there will be a large gap between the PPI in the display area and the PPI of the entire screen, which will cause phenomena such as color patches in the display area. Therefore, he concludes there is still far from mass production. (My Drivers, Sina, IT Home)

Connectivity

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the green light to Huawei to develop the UK’s 5G network. The UK government said it would limit Huawei’s role and restrict its access to “sensitive” parts of the network. Huawei has welcomed Downing Street’s “evidence-based” decision to allow the firm to continue its rollout of the 5G network. (Laoyaoba, Laoyaoba, Telegraph, The Guardian, Business Insider)

Virgin Orbit, the California-based small satellite launch company, has signed an agreement with ImageSat International (ISI), a global leader in space-based intelligence solutions, to develop an end-to-end responsive space service offering focused on national security customers.  (CN Beta, TechCrunch, Spaceref)

Phone

MGM has reportedly held preliminary talks with Apple, Netflix and other larger media companies about an acquisition as the biggest streaming companies consider strengthening their content libraries. (Apple Insider, CNBC)

Cowen’s analayst Krish Sankar estimates that Apple produced 70M iPhones for the holiday quarter in 2019. Of those 70M, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models accounted for 74% of that —about 52M. For the first calendar quarter of 2020, Apple is predicted to build 46M iPhones of varying models, up 12% year-over-year. In that 46M, is 6M “iPhone SE 2” units, that Sankar estimates will sell for about USD475 each. (GSM Arena, Apple Insider)

Apple has allegedly asked suppliers to make as many as 80M iPhones in 1H20, an increase of more than 10% from the previous year’s output. Apple has booked orders for as many as 65M units of current models, primarily the iPhone 11 series, and as many as 15M units of a new low-cost model. (CN Beta, Bloomberg, Gulf News)

Apple’s online store in India will reportedly be operational starting 3Q20. Apple is allegedly still working on the logistics of setting up the store and that the quarter between Jul-Sept 2020 is the new tentative deadline.  (TechCrunch)

Apple has announced its fiscal 1Q20 results, and overall, they have generated USD91.8B in quarterly revenue, versus USD84.3B in the year-ago quarter and USD88.3B in 1Q18. This quarter, Apple says it sold USD55.957B in iPhones, USD7.160B in Macs, and USD5.977B in iPads. Its combined “wearables, home and accessories” sales is USD10.01B, while services hit USD12.715B.  (Apple, VentureBeat)

Wearables

Canalys forecasts that vendors will ship more than 3B smart devices worldwide in 2023. These include smartphones, desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets, wearable bands, smart speakers and smart personal audio devices. This represents an impressive 4-year CAGR of 6.5%, despite economic and political uncertainty. In terms of opportunities, smart personal audio will be the fastest-growing category, up 32.1% year on year in 2020 to reach 490M units, as Bluetooth headphones, earphones and TWS earbuds all grow. (CN Beta, Canalys, press)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Apple CEO Tim Cook is asked when he felt that people would feel the first impact of AR on their lives. He has replied that AR is exciting to him because there are AR uses for consumer applications and enterprise applications, which is a rarity. (Mac Rumors, Cult of Macs)

Videogame engine Unity has supported the XR industry from the early days of virtual reality (VR) through to the current crop of augmented reality (AR) hardware. Affecting Unity 2019.3 and beyond, the company has confirmed that Samsung Gear VR and Google VR support will end due to the fact the relative companies have moved their interest away from these products. (CN Beta, Unity, VR Focus, Upload VR)

Automotive

General Motors (GM) will invest USD2.2B in its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to build electric trucks and sport utility vehicles. The company has said its first electric truck will be a pickup, whose production will begin late 2021 and will be followed by a self-driving vehicle, Cruise Origin. (VentureBeat, 163, Sina)

Robotics

Miso Robotics, a startup developing automation products for fast-food and quick-service restaurant kitchens, asserts machines can boost productivity by working with humans as opposed to wholly replacing them. Miso has  unveiled the Miso Robot on a Rail (ROAR), which it describes as the “next generation” of “cost-efficient” robotic assistant solutions for restaurant chains. (CN Beta, VentureBeat, TechCrunch)