IF / News

Chipsets

MediaTek’s subsidy Polestar Electronic IC industrial park project is officially settled in Xiamen Torch High-tech Zone. The investment amounts to CNY1B. Polestar Electronic has also established branches in Shenzhen and Shanghai, focusing on IP in-house development, aiming at consumer electronics, surveillance, Internet of Things (IoT), multimedia and AI chip segments. The project expects to achieve revenues of CNY200M in 2018. (Laoyaoba, UDN, Apple Daily)

Infineon Technologies AG and JD Group have signed a strategic partnership agreement aimed at creating an efficient and secured smart IoT ecosystem to address the Chinese market. The two companies will combine Infineon’s technology expertise in the semiconductor solution field and the local market insight and network of JD. (EE Times, Infineon, Infineon CN, EET Asia, JD Group)

IC Insights has included a discussion of the top-25 semiconductor suppliers in 1H18. All but four of the top 15 companies had double-digit year-over-year growth in 1H18.  Moreover, 7 companies had ≥20% growth, including the 5 big memory suppliers (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Toshiba/Toshiba Memory, and Western Digital/SanDisk) as well as Nvidia and ST. (CN Beta, IC Insights, press)

Touch Display

Samsung Display will resume production at its A4 OLED plant as early as in Oct 2018 as it has recently secured a new Chinese client for its flexile OLED panels. The plant, formerly L7-1 LCD production line, is supposed to start production early this year but the plans have been delayed for months due to shrinking demand. The monthly production capacity of the A4 is 30,000 units of the G6 OLED panels.  (OLED-Info, The Investor, Xuehua, PJ Time)

According to IHS Markit , shipments of flexible AMOLED panels are expected to reach 335.7M units by 2020, topping those of rigid AMOLED panels at 315.9M units. Flexible AMOLED panels are predicted to make up 52.0% of total AMOLED panel shipments, up from 38.9% in 2018.  (IHS Markit, press, OLED-Info, OfWeek, PJ Time)

Storage

UMC is the world’s 3rd-largest wafer foundry. In the past year, UMC, which is a foundry vendor, has launched a global lawsuit against Micron, which specializes in DRAM. In 2017, Micron sued UMC for infringement of business secrets in Taiwan and the United States. In early 2018, UMC sued Micron for infringement of UMC patents in Fuzhou, China. In Jul 2018, China’s Fuzhou Intermediate Court issued a sales ban on Micron. (Laoyaoba, TechNews, Chiphell, DRAM)

Sensory

WaveSense thinks that GPR is just the ticket for helping self-driving cars navigate in bad weather. WaveSense system will scan up to 10 feet below the surface of the road in order to lock on to stable ground. It can then use this data, combined with data from the vehicle’s other onboard sensors, to build itself a map of subterranean features which is can then use to maintain its position on the road. (CN Beta, CNET, VentureBeat)

Microsoft has shown off a new Project Kinect for Azure, a package of sensors, including Microsoft’s next generation depth camera, with onboard compute designed for AI on the Edge. This new sensor package will include Microsoft’s breakthrough Time of Flight sensor with additional sensors all in a small, power-efficient form factor. (CN Beta, Next Reality, Microsoft, MS Poweruser)

Connectivity

Broadcom has announced production availability of the Stingray PS1100R 100G PCIe adapter solution for Ethernet connected NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) storage applications. The PS1100R adapter card provides an out-of-the-box storage fabric enabled solution for next generation Just a Bunch of Flash (JBOF) and Fabric-attached Bunch of Flash (FBOF) appliances. (CN Beta, Broadcom, Business Insider, Guru 3D)

Nokia has disclosed its licensing fee for 5G standard essential patents: EUR3 (USD3.48) per device, a flat rate notably lower than 5G licenses announced by rivals Ericsson and Qualcomm. (CN Beta, VentureBeat, Light Reading, Telecoms)

Phone

Samsung reportedly is going to collaborate with ODM in China aiming at mid-to-low segment. Samsung currently has only 2 factory in China. Majority production in Huizhou has shifted to Vietnam, and there is rumor claiming Tianjin factory is closing down. By collaborating with ODMs, Samsung could reduce the production costs drastically, which could accelerate pushing more mid-to-low end smartphones to the market. (TechNews, China AET, Elecfans)

Samsung will allegedly be significantly shaking up its low-end and mid-range lineup by launching 2 new series – the Galaxy R and Galaxy P. Samsung is rumored to cancel the Galaxy J series, which already delivers the bulk of its sales in the affordable segment of the market in addition to the Galaxy On and Galaxy C series. (NDTV, Sam Mobile, IT Home)

OPPO F9 and F9 Pro are official in India, featuring 6.3” 1080×2340 FHD+ notch LTPS IPS, MediaTek Helio P60, Android 8.1, 3500mAh, rear dual 16MP-2MP: F9 – front 16MP, 4GB+64GB, INR20,000. F9 Pro – front 25MP, 6GB+64GB, INR24,000. (CN Beta, Economic Times, NDTV, Indian Express, Baijiahao, 163, ChinaZ)

360 N7 Pro and Lite are announced: N7 Pro – 5.99” 2160×1080 FHD+ LTPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, rear dual 12MP-2MP + front dual 16MP-2MP, 6GB+64/128GB, 4000mAh, from CNY1,999. N7 Lite  – 5.99” 2160×1080 FHD+ LTPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, rear dual 13MP-2MP + front 8MP, 4/6GB + 32/64/128GB, 4050mAh,  from CNY1,199. (CN Beta, Sohu, China.com, iFeng, My Drivers)

Smartisan Nut Pro 2S is announced – 6.01” 2160×1080 FHD+ AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, rear dual 12MP-5MP + front 16MP, 4/6GB+64/128GB, 3600mAh, from CNY1798.  (CN Beta, Gizmo China)

Xiaomi Pocophone Poco F1 is announced in India – 6.18” 1080×2246 FHD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, rear dual 12MP-5MP + front 20MP, 6/8GB + 64/128/256GB, Android 8.0 (MIUI 9.6), 4000mAh, from INR20,999. (CN Beta, The Verge, GSM Arena, TNW)

Wearables

Fitbit announces Charge 3 fitness tracker, a gray-scale OLED panel that is 40% brighter and sharper than the screen on the Charge 2, up to 7 days of battery life, over 15 goal-based exercise routines, water resistance up to 50m, a new Swim Mode that allows for better tracking while in the water, and more. It is priced at USD150. (Android Central, Apple Insider, iFeng, Baijiahao)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Using its own human body recognition technology and beautification engine, SenseTime is launching its SenseAR body beautification function. (CN Beta, CN Beta, Entrepreneur, CSDN)

HTC is announcing the launch of pre-orders for the Vive Wireless Adapter. The adapter allows Vive and Vive Pro owners to cut the cord, and allow users to tether wirelessly to their PC. The Vive Wireless Adapter retails for USD299. (Pocket-Lint, TechCrunch, HTC Vive, Sina, ChinaZ, CN Beta)

Insta360 has launched the Insta360 Pro 2, a 6-lens professional virtual reality camera that delivers 8K VR imagery. The camera can shoot 8K-per-eye 3D 360 video, and it has innovative features throughout the entire professional VR production workflow. (VentureBeat, Peta Pixel, New Atlas, Sohu, Sohu)

Automotive

NIO’s first production car, a seven-passenger SUV called the ES8, debuted in Dec 2017 and went into production in China earlier this spring. It costs about half the price that a Tesla Model X commands in the country, and NIO started shipping them to customers there in June. A smaller five-passenger SUV called the ES6 is already in development, with deliveries starting in 2019.  (Laoyaoba, The Verge)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk indicates that Tesla could make a USD25,000 electric car in ‘about 3 years’. Musk is talking about Tesla going more down market with a significantly cheaper vehicle. (Ubergizmo, Engadget, Electrek, Wallstreet CN)

Robotics

Wistron Medical is cooperating with a number of dynamic artificial exoskeleton companies including Canada-based Bionik and B-TEMIA. The exoskeleton working with B-TEMIA is now weighed 6.8kg, and its principle operation is that the physiological sensor senses the hip joint of the user, and with its unique patented technology Dermoskeleton, through AI analysis and judgement to move the servo motor and reducer, thus fully support the user’s gait to protect the safety of the user. (TechNews, Globe Newswire)

Payment

Samsung is celebrating the 3^rd anniversary of its mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay. Originally launched in South Korea on 20 Aug 2015, Samsung Pay is now available on 6 continents and 24 markets, including the latest market, South Africa. Samsung has recently passed more than 1.3B transactions globally. (CN Beta, Samsung, ZDNet)