11-23: Qualcomm and MediaTek allegedly have stopped supplying chipsets to LeEco; Huawei’s next generation Kirin 970 will be Huawei’s first to be built on the TSMC 10nm process; etc.
Chipset
Intel has issued a statement to deny its withdrawal from the wearables market. It still has several products in the works, including TAG Heuer Connected watch and recent Oakley Radar Pace smart eyewear. (CN Beta, Wearable, Pocket Now)
Chipmaker Macom Technology Solutions announced plans to buy Applied Micro Circuits, which provides silicon solutions for cloud infrastructure and data centers, as well as connectivity products for edge, metro and long haul communications equipment, for USD770M. (Tencent, Morning Whistle, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo, Reuters, Discover USA)
Because of huge debt, Qualcomm and MediaTek allegedly have stopped supplying chipsets to LeEco. Additionally, a number of memory vendors have also refused to supply. Currently Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 is shrinking their supply, at the same time stopping supplying Snapdragon 625 and other new products to LeEco. Because of 3M units of X20 (MT6797) inventory, MediaTek has refused to supply P20 and also provide X30 demo to LeEco. Take note however LeEco currently does not have products using Snapdraogn 625 and Helio P20. (China.com, 36Kr, 163, Lanjing TMT)
In 2017, the main 3 chipset vendors are going to battle mid-to-high-end segment. (CEB2B, 52RD)
Huawei’s next generation Kirin 970 will be Huawei’s first to be built on the TSMC 10nm process. The Kirin 970 is said to likely still be on an octa-core architecture but will integrate a baseband with support for Cat. 12 global LTE. (Gizmo China, Sohu, Huanqiu, Laoyaba, CNMO)
Samsung is reportedly to reorganize the System LSI division in order to systematically grow the system semiconductor business. They are planning to separate the design and manufacturing sectors in the division and separate or spin off to fabless and foundry business divisions. (Business Korea, TechNews)
Touch / Display
Apple’s patent “flexible display devices” describes an iPhone with a foldable full-screen display. It relies on a number of flexible components, an OLED display and metal support structure. For the latter, it proposes nitinol, a nickel and titanium alloy known for its elasticity and unique shape memory abilities. (Apple Insider, USPTO, CN Beta)
Samsung is reportedly in the process of making a bid for QD Vision, an American company specializing in quantum dot materials. Samsung is allegedly looking at paying around USD70M (KRW83B) for the company. (Android Authority, ET News)
Battery
Apple current iPhone series battery suppliers are Desay, Sunwoda and Simplo, each contributes 1/3 of the battery supplies to Apple. For Apple to diversify supply chain, 3 suppliers is sufficient, yet “iPhone 6s randomly shut down” incident might influence Apple’s choices. (Sohu, CN Beta, Huanqiu)
University of Central Florida (UCF) has created a supercapacitor battery prototype that works like new even after being recharged 30,000 times. Supercapacitors can be charged quickly because they store electricity statically on the surface of a material, rather than using chemical reactions like batteries. (Engadget, UCF, Phone Arena, Sina)
Biometrics
Jaguar Land Rover is developing technology that uses facial recognition and gait analysis to detect when owners of its vehicles approach, to open the doors for them. Cameras mounted under the windows of the doors would capture both video and still images of someone walking and standing by the car, comparing them with those saved on its computer. If they match the car will unlock its doors and open them. (CN Beta, La Rampa di Napoli, AOL, Daily Mail, Patent)
Connectivity
T-Mobile’s 4G LTE CellSpot will soon receive an update to enabled 20MHz Wideband LTE. Nokia (makers of the 4G LTE CellSpot) have reportedly confirmed that a firmware update will arrive in either 4Q16 or 1Q17 to enable 20MHz LTE. (Android Headlines, TMO News, Reddit)
Smartphones
Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley estimated that Apple took 106% of smartphone industry profits in 3Q16. Apple’s smartphone operating profit totaled USD10.84B in 3Q16, vs. the industry total of USD10.28B, Walkley said. Smartphone vendors that lost money in 3Q16 included Microsoft, BlackBerry, Lenovo, LG and HTC. (CN Beta, Investors, Benzinga)
According to Strategy Analytics, global smartphone profits reached USD9B in total during 3Q16. Apple dominated and captured a record 91% share of all smartphone profits worldwide. It estimates the global smartphone industry realized total operating profits of USD9.4B during 3Q16. (Strategy Analytics, press, CN Beta)
Ming Chi Kuo of KGI Securities estimates that Apple’s next-gen iPhone in 2017 will enter mass production in 3Q16, and there will be 3 models—OLED, 4.7” TFT-LCD and 5.5” TFT-LCD. The shipment would reach 90M~110M units in 2017. (TechNews, China Times, Fulton News)
Ming Chi Kuo of KGI Securities expects Foxconn and Pegatron will be Apple’s 2017 iPhone EMS winners with most of the orders. He also expects to see OLED version of iPhone in 2017 will have an increased of ASP. (TechNews, China Times)
IDC estimates that the market for used smartphones will grow from 81.3M devices in 2015 to 222.6M units in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3%. (IDC, press, CN Beta)
Internet of Things
Google has agreed a 5-year deal with one of the largest NHS trusts to handle the medical records of up to 1.6M people. Google’s AI company DeepMind Health will use the data to help develop a mobile app “Streams” they claim could save 10,000 lives a year. (Android Headlines, News Grio, TechCrunch, Hexun, Baijia)
Neato Robotics, leaders in smart robots for the home, announced Neato Botvac Connected is the first Neato robot vacuum that can be controlled via the Alexa voice service using devices like the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. (Yahoo, Android Headlines, CNET)
Apple partners with Indian ride-hailing firm Ola. Apple Music will be made available during rides as part of a new entertainment platform called Ola Play. (Apple Insider, LA Times, CN Beta)
AirSelfie is a tiny drone, sporting a camera, which connects to phone via an app. It flies up, takes a shot, and flies back to the user. It is equipped with a 5MP camera, can shoot video in HD pixels. It can only fly at 20 meters above ground (Phone Arena, Business Insider, AirSelfie, CN Gold, iFanr)
Up to half of Jaguar Land Rover’s lineup will be plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles by 2020, but none will be self-driving, says Ralf Speth, the company’s CEO. (CN Beta, Auto News)
Commerce
According to Credit Suisse, there is just 0.7% of the world’s adult population owns almost half of the world’s wealth, while the bottom 73% have less than USD10,000 each. The 3.5B adults with wealth below USD10,000 account for 2.4% of global wealth. In contrast, the 33M millionaires comprise less than 1% of the adult population, but own 46% of household wealth. (CN Beta, Business Insider, Credit Suisse, report, data book)
The OECD said the combined gross domestic products of its 34 members (most of which are developed economies) grew by 0.6% from 3Q15, compared with just 0.3% in 2Q16. That marked the fastest rate of QoQ growth since the 1Q15. (WSJ, OECD, press, NASDAQ, TechNews)
