4-13: SGD, LGD, JDI, JOLED all invest in an OLED startup; Half of the Chinese smartphone market, and 20% of the global smartphone market by China Big Four; etc.
Samsung Display, LG Display, Japan Display and JOLED have all invested in Japanese Kyulux Inc., an OLED startup; A new protocol to prevent non-compliant USB Type-C cables is announced; Samsung leads global standardization 5G network for 3rd Generation Partnership Project Radio Access Network 1 (3GPP RAN1); Huawei discussing their cloud strategy; LG is opening up the modular functionality and SDK of LG Friends to third-party developers; etc.
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Chipset |
| TSMC is set to beat Intel and Samsung in ramping up production on its 7nm process lines. It would start production of 7nm chips in 1H18. (Digitimes, Sohu, NewsKJ) |
| Qualcomm has received authorization from federal regulators to perform outdoor drone tests at its San Diego headquarters, which took a year to get. (TechNews, San Diego Union Tribute, eWeek) |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 823 (coded MSM8996Pro) leaked, featuring 64-bit quad-core processor, and will be used in Samsung Galaxy Note 6, LG G Flex 3 and Sony. (TechNews, Fone Arena, Mobile Syrup)
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| United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) USD62 million joint investment with Xiamen for 12” fab will start production end of this year, estimated production would reach 72,000 substrates. (TechNews, Sohu) |
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Display |
| There were an estimated 371.360 million handset-use touch panels and 48.849 million touch panels used in smaller-than 11” tablets shipped globally during 1Q16, decreasing 15.0% and 29.0% respectively on quarter, while the global shipments of 6.836 million notebook-use touch panels in the period increased 0.8%, according to Digitimes Research. (Digitimes, press, OfWeek) |
| Samsung Display, LG Display, Japan Display and JOLED have all invested in Japanese Kyulux Inc., an OLED startup. (Deal Curry, CDR Info, TechNews) |
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Memory |
| Micron shares are down 60% in the 12 months on DRAM price plunge. Downside from here is probably limited, but so is the upside. Barron reckons the possible way out of this for Micron is merging with NVIDIA, to benefit from of the cloud development of NVIDIA. (TechNews, Barron’s) |
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Battery |
| Samsung SDI will completely exit the fuel cell business in accordance with the strategy to drop unprofitable businesses. It will sell the equipment to Kolon Industries. (CN Beta, Korea Times) |
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Sensors |
| The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an injectable pacemaker that doesn’t require wired leads, which often lead to complications. The 1” long Medtronic-built device, called the Micra Transcatheter Pacing System, is about a tenth the size of traditional pacemakers—making it the smallest in the world. (CN Beta, Gizmodo, FDA, Medtronic)
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Connectivity |
| The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which is in charge of certifying standards-compliant USB devices, has announced a new protocol that seeks to prevent non-compliant USB Type-C cables from doing damage to a connected device. (Windows Central, CN Beta, Business Wire)
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| Samsung Electronics will lead the global standardization of fifth-generation (5G) network technologies for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project Radio Access Network 1 (3GPP RAN1). The international meeting runs for the next 5 days in Busan. Samsung will discuss how to integrate diverse services including the Internet of Things (IoT) into the faster and broader 5G network. (CN Beta, Korea Times, Samsung)
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| Google grants USD750,000 to Perkins School building a ‘Waze’ for the blind. (CN Beta, CNN, ABC News)
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Smartphones |
| Half of the Chinese smartphone market, and 20% of the global smartphone market, is controlled by four Chinese handset makers especially the Big Four namely Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, says analyst Michael Fan of JP Morgan. The Big Four are likely to continue to gain share in coming years, which could be a problem to LG and HTC. (TechNews, Barron’s, press) |
| The National Payments Corporation of India launched the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which experts say has the potential to revolutionize mobile payment system in the country. (India Times, TechNews, Bloomberg, NDTV)
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| Meizu reveals that it sold 100,000 units Meizu m3 note in the first 7 minutes of the sale. (Android Headlines, GSM Arena, Gizmo China, IT168, Xiaofei)
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| China-based telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has been developing products and solutions based on cloud computing, according to company vice chairman and rotating CEO Eric Xu. (Digitimes, 163, CC Time)
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| Google announces its commitment to train one million young Africans in digital skills in the next year. (CN Beta, Fortune, IT News Africa) |
| Apple launches leasing plans for iPhone SE in India, with INR999 per month for 2 years. In total INR24000, which is cheaper than the full retail price of INR39000. (CN Beta, India Times, BGR)
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| Piper Jaffray’s latest semiannual Taking Stock With Teens survey (done by analyst Gene Munster) with 6500 teenagers shows that Apple iPhone ownership among U.S. teens rose to a high of 69% vs. 67% in fall 2015. Plus, some 75% of teens expect their next phone to be an iPhone, up from 74% last fall. (CN Beta, Financial Content, Mac Rumors)
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| Juniper Research predicts the value of the smartphone and wearable contactless payments to rise from USD35 billion to USD95 billion in 2018. (Read Write, Juniper Research, press) |
| LG is opening up the modular functionality of the LG G5 to third-party developers, in addition to the software development kit for a couple of LG Friends — namely, the LG 360 Cam and 360 VR. LG will have to vet each piece of hardware before it goes into production. (CN Beta, PC World, Solo News)
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| HTC 10 is announced – 5.2” QHD Super LCD 5 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 12MP UltraPixel 2 1.55µm pixel size OIS + 5MP 1.34µm pixel size OIS cameras, 4GB RAM, 32 / 64GB storage, Android 6.0, LTE, USB Type-C, fingerprint sensor, 3000mAh battery, USD699. HTC 10 Lifestyle is a low-end of HTC 10 featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976) processor, 3GB RAM. (CN Beta, Android Authority, GSM Arena)
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Tablets |
| ODM business is commonly poor. Quanta and Pegatron 1Q16 revenue is not satisfying. Quanta 1Q16 revenue is NTD197.36 billion (-28% QoQ, -3.82% YoY), while Pegatron 1Q16 revenue is NTD256.52 billion (-37.7% QoQ, -6.46% YoY). The main reason there is less working days in 1Q16, and the PC business is not doing well as expected. |
| Worldwide PC shipments totaled 60.6 million units in 1Q16, a YoY decline of 11.5%, according to IDC. Dell overtook HP for the first place ranking for the first time since 3Q09, ending a run of 25 consecutive quarters with HP at the top of the US PC market. (Digitimes, IDC, press, 199IT)
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| Apple reportedly plans to kill off the MacBook Air line this year, and focus instead on the 12” Retina MacBook and slimmer-than-ever MacBook Pro models. (CN Beta, BGR) |
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Wearables |
| Facebook unveils its own 360º video capture system Surrond 360 – the rig boasts 17 synchronized cameras: 14 along its edge, plus one fish-eye camera at the top and two on the bottom. The system exports 4K, 6K, and 8K video for each eye. It is priced at USD30000. (CN Beta, PC Mag, Value Walk)
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| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is working on “a whole new set of social experiences” across VR platforms. Mark Zuckerberg also showed off a concept for a pair of smart glasses, which is capable of both virtual reality and augmented reality. (The Verge, Engadget, Mashable, Re/Code, 163)
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| According to Piper Jaffray’s Teen Survey from analyst Gene Munster, only 12% of respondents owned a wrist-wearable device as of spring 2016. Apple Watch was the dominant player, capturing a 71% market share. (CN Beta, Financial Content, Mac Rumors, Apple Insider)
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| Logitech acquires wireless earbud maker Jaybird for USD50 million. (Android Central, Logitech, Apple Insider, CN Beta) |
| JBL launches Reflect Aware C noise-canceling earbuds featuring USB Type-C port. It pulls power via USB Type-C to power its active noise-cancelling function, priced at USD160. (CN Beta, Pocket Now, Geek, Slash Gear, The Verge)
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Internet of Things |
| IHS forecasts that the IoT market will grow from an installed base of 15.4 billion devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025.Tech companies creating strategic platforms to support the IoT. (Digitimes, IHS, press) |
| Livestream unveils Mevo, which integrates Facebook Live streaming, shooting wide-angle video at 150º, captures video at 4K, costs USD399. (Engadget, Mevo, Business Insider, Tom’s Guide, The Verge)
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| Sprimo crowd-funding smart air purifier could tell the basic contents of the air and give a quality rating how clean the air really is. It can also sense the filter being used, and notify when it requires a replacement. (Engadget, Crowd Supply, Venture Beat)
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| Lock brand Kwikset has recently announced their plans to create a lock that does away with the need for a key. The decision to create such a lock is to increase security. (Ubergizmo, Kwikset, Tuicool, The Verge)
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| Xiaomi eco-system sub-brand MiJia announces 2nd product, Xiao Bai smart camera, which is a 360º turn-able camera. The camera can be turned via the Xiaomi smart home app for capturing all around video. (CN Beta, gFan, 163)
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