4-25: Samsung new-gen 14nm and 2nd-gen 10nm; Apple brand awareness in India is low; 72% online and offline products are of the same price; etc.
Samsung new-gen 14nm and 2nd-gen 10nm; Apple brand awareness in India is low; 72% online and offline products are of the same price; LeEco expects to have more than CNY100 billion revenue in 2017; Some reckon Apple Watch a failure product, but some still thinks it is doing not bad compared to first-gen iPhone; etc.
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Chipset |
| Samsung announced plans for a new cost-optimized 14nm process as well as a second generation of 10nm technology that it says will offer 10% better performance than the first generation. (52RD, WCCF Tech, Apple Insider, Re/Code, 51Touch) |
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Display |
| Chongqing Graphene Tech showcasing a flexible phone equipped with graphene flexible display. Its screen size is 5.2”, longer and narrower than usual phone. The company will launch a 6.23” monochrome flexible phone end of this year, and launching color display in 2018. (IT168, 163, Sohu)
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| Novaled, which is a provider of OLED material that was bought by Samsung Group, is continuing its trend of earning surprise. After making surplus in its first year since it was bought, its net profit during last year increased by 246%. (Sigma Intel, Digitimes, ET News)
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Camera |
| Samsung Electro-Mechanics is planning to supply camera modules to Tesla. These camera modules will be used for rear cameras for parking of ‘Model 3’. (CN Beta, ET News) |
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Smartphones |
| Nearly 50% of Indians are unaware of Apple iPhone, according to a research note by Morgan Stanley’s Kate Huberty. The company is still in the early stages of building its brand in the country. (India Today, Business Insider, TechNews, Economic Times)
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| KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo does not believe upcoming Apple iPhone will have “many attractive selling points”. He predicts shipments will fall somewhere between 190-205 million units. He also estimates iPhone SE to shipped 18 million units. (Apple Insider, Phone Arena, 9to5Mac, CN Beta)
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| Forbes editor Chuck Jones, based on the lead time, believes that Apple iPhone SE still has a strong demand at least in China and US market. The lead-times in China and US is still roughly 2-3 weeks, which is similar to iPhone 5s when it was first launched. This could indicate that iPhone SE has a strong performance as iPhone 5s. (Forbes, press, CN Beta)
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| MIT Sloan School of Management professor Alberto Cavallo conducts a worldwide analysis of prices online and offline covering online and offline prices in 56 large multi-channel retailers in 10 different countries. Those are retailers that offer both online and brick and mortar store sales. What he found was that in 72% of cases, the prices were the same. (199IT, Sohu, Herald, CNET, Boston Globe, report)
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| Google is creating Area 120, a startup incubator that would let some employees pursue their “20% projects” (those personal projects Google allows in a fifth of working hours) full-time. (Engadget, The Information, Android Headlines, CN Beta) |
| LeEco revenue in 2016 exceeded CNY10 billion, and in 2015 it exceeded CNY20 billion. LeEco CEO Yueting Jia expects this year the company revenue to reach CNY50-60 billion and in 2017 it could reach CNY100 billion. (iFeng, GMW, Sohu) |
| A British-Israeli start-up Sirin Labs AG plans to sell a mobile phone from next month that will offer users unprecedented levels of technology and security – and retail for close to USD20,000. (CN Beta, Reuters, Yahoo) |
| HP Elite X3 Windows 10 Mobile device is announced – 5.96” QHD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 16MP + 8MP cameras, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, Windows 10 Mobile, LTE, USB Type-C, fingerprint sensor, iris scanner, 4150mAh battery. (Win Beta, Softpedia, CN Beta)
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Tablets |
| The year was 2007, and Apple’s shiny handheld computer was finally being unwrapped after years of speculation. Not everyone could have predicted that just four years later, mobile devices would officially overtake the PC. (Market Watch, CN Beta)
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Wearables |
| Andrea Rinaldo, CEO of wearables firm Xmetrics, believes that single-function wearables attached to different parts of the body are the future of the industry. (Re/Write, Wareable)
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| Motley Fool analyst Daniel Kline indicates that it is not just Apple Watch which has failed so far (based on the declining sales numbers), but also wearables in a broader sense. So far, beyond niche fitness uses, no company has created a compelling reason to own any of the high-end smart watches currently being sold. (Business Insider, Motley Fool, 199IT) |
| Apple has told developers that it does not accept apps for the Apple Watch that do not work on the smartwatch unless an iPhone is hooked up to it. (Ubergizmo, Apple, Sohu, Tencent) |
| Comparing other Apple products when they are first launched, iPhone only sold 6.1 million units, iPad only sold 19.5 million, and yet Apple Watch is able to sold 12-13 million units, which should be considered not bad. (WSJ, Phone Arena, NASDAQ, TechWeb, iMobile)
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Internet of Things |
| Google parent company Alphabet would continue to rationalize the product portfolio, says CFO Ruth Porat indicating some of the projects might be facing cancellation. (CN Beta, Investor Place, Preface)
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| Toyota head of China operations, Hiroji Onishi announces to launch a plug-in hybrid car (PHEV) in China in 2018. (iFeng, CN Beta, Channel News Asia, IB Times, Bloomberg) |
