IF / News

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Samsung is opening its vault and spending some money to take on TSMC in the arena for 5G chips. Despite a challenge from Samsung, the Nikkei Asian Review notes that TSMC’s lead in the production of 5G chips might be insurmountable. Since 2013, TSMC has spent roughly USD10B annually on equipment and research and development, mostly paying out of pocket for the expenditures. In the year ended Dec 2019, consolidated net profit fell 2% from a year ago to NTD345.3B (USD11.7B), hurt by slower semiconductor demand. (Nikkei Asian Review, press, Phone Arena)

Apple will release its iPhone 12 series in 2H20, which will use the A14 chip produced by TSMC based on the 5nm process. TSMC will allegedly deliver 80M A14 chips to Apple in 2020. (GizChina, My Drivers)

Samsung Display has announced that it anticipates to begin mass production of quantum-dot panels from 2021. With the installation of Gen-8.5 vapor deposition machinery as a start, Samsung Display plans to complete the QD manufacturing line within this year and kick in commercial production in 2021. (CN Beta, Korea Herald)

According to Essence Securities, the Korean factory accelerates its withdrawal from the LCD market. LG Display (LGD) will shut down its P7 and P8 production lines by the end of 2020, while Samsung Display will shut down L8-1, L8-2 and L7 three LCD production lines by 2021. The withdrawal of the Korean factory and increasing demand will eliminate the problem of supply and demand mismatch, and the market will be in short supply. According to the data in late Jun 2020, LCD prices of various sizes have stopped falling and begun to increase. (Essence Securities report)

Huawei has patented a design for a unique zoom camera smartphone at European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The patent describes adding support for attachable lenses just like regular cameras. This particular design patent seems to have a triple camera setup consisting of two smaller sensors, an elongated flash module and a larger sensor which can be used with removable lenses. (Gizmo China, GizChina, My Drivers)

Xiaomi is reportedly working on many more features, and one of them is called AI Shutter that appears to mimic functionality similar to Top Shot. Top Shot, as seen on Google Pixel devices, takes a burst of images rapidly, and then utilizes machine learning to point out the best shot in the series. (GSM Arena, XDA-Developers)

TSMC has recently won CIS orders from Sony. TSMC will build a OEM production line exclusively for Sony to produce high-end CIS at the Nanke 14B factory. It is several times the existing order, both companies will extend collaboration on 28nm. TSMC is actively planning to build a new high-end CIS packaging capacity in Zhunan. The relevant development plan will be officially started at the beginning in Jul 2020. It is expected to be completed in mid-2021 and is expected to cost NTD300B. (CN Beta, IT Home, UDN, UDN)

In Nov 2019, Xiaomi launched its first phone with a 108MP camera. Since then, the company has launched 2 more phones with 108MP cameras: the flagship Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. Xiaomi is allegedly working on another phone with a 108MP camera, codenamed “Gauguin Pro”. (Android Central, XDA-Developers, Sina, Sohu, IT Home)

According to Counterpoint Research, in 1Q20, the penetration of quad-camera smartphones reached almost 20% of global smartphone shipments. OPPO, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung together accounted for 83% of nearly 60M quad-camera smartphone shipments during 1Q20. realme is the most aggressive adopter of quad-camera designs, with penetration reaching up to 2/3 of its shipments during 1Q20.  (Counterpoint Research, Laoyaoba)

OPPO has announced it will cooperate with Vodafone and Ericsson to construct the first 5G standalone network in the United Kingdom and offer network slicing services. The new network, built in the UK’s Coventry University, introduced Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip and MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chip. (CN Beta, China Daily, Ericsson)

The Ministry of Electronics and IT of the Government of India has launched ‘Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge’, an initiative to identify the best existing Indian apps that have the potential to scale and become world-class. (Neowin, Government of India)

LG is sensing a “window of opportunity” provided by the anti-China mood in India currently, and plans to utilize it to make a comeback in the smartphone market by focusing on the popular under INR15,000 price segment in 2020, scaling up local manufacturing by almost 15 times by Diwali and expanding distribution. LG is also planning on applying for the PLI (production-linked incentive). By Aug 2020, LG plans on launching 6 phones across all segments starting from the under INR10,000 category (roughly USD133) with plans to expand through online and offline channels.  (Gizmo China, Economic Times)

Huawei and Honor are allegedly ready to enter the gaming laptop market. Honor will first introduce its models, followed by Huawei. Honor brand head Zhao Ming has repeatedly noted that the gaming laptop segment is interesting to the company.  (My Drivers, GizChina)

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, said it plans to sell its plant in Anbach, France, to optimize its global production network because of overcapacity and plummeting demand for new cars in Europe. The current Uinbach plant is responsible for the production of smart brand electric vehicles and fuel models, the factory production from 2017 onwards has exceeded 80,000 vehicles. In Jan 2020, Mercedes-Benz and Zhejiang Geely Holding announced that they have formally established the global joint venture “smart Automobile” for the smart brand. (CN Beta, Motor1, Daimler)

Uber Technologies has reportedly agreed to acquire Postmates in a USD2.65B all-stock takeover. The move for Postmates comes on the heels of Uber’s failed bid to acquire publicly traded GrubHub, which is scooped up by Europe’s Just Eat Takeaway.com NV for USD7.3B. (TechCrunch, Bloomberg)

Paytm, owned by One 97 Communications, has announced they have reached an agreement to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE for a sum of INR568 crore (USD76M) as the financial services startup looks to tap the nation’s booming insurance market. Paytm, whose services are used by tens of millions of Indians each month, said the acquisition will help it “democratize general insurance services” in the country. (TechCrunch, Business Standard, Money Control)