IF / News

Chipsets

Globalfoundries (GF) announced stopping 7nm and node process development in Aug 2018, yet focusing on the current 14nm/12nm FinFET and 22/12FDX processes. GF is an important foundry vendor of AMD. After the announcement, AMD has switched its 7nm CPU and GPU orders to TSMC. GF also manufactures high-performance processors for IBM. IBM has reportedly also switched its orders to TSMC for high-performance server servers, challenging Intel’s dominance of data center market. (CN Beta, Asia Nikkei)

Touch Display

Huawei has reportedly completed the development of a 5G compatible foldable phone, which features a 5” screen in a folded state and an 8” size when it is fully unfolded. Huawei has allegedly shown the phone to high ranking officials at carriers in Korea. The foldable display is possibly supplied by BOE. (CN Beta, GizChina, Phone Arena, TechRadar, ET News)

Biometrics

Goodix is suing Silead and Truly Opto-electronics again for patent infringement, acquiring CNY50.5M. Goodix claims that it has acquired patent ZL201821077979.2 about under-display fingerprint scanner equipment. (CN Beta, HQEW, 51Touch, Sina)

Phone

President of Huawei Honor, George Zhao discusses the company’s strategy of globalization. He indicates that in India, Honor does not sacrifice its profit, and in Russia Honor brand will reach number 1. In American markets, the Honor brand will improve in 2020. (My Drivers, Sina)

According to MobData, in China 3Q18 top 10 smartphone vendors are Apple, Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, Samsung, Meizu, Gionee, LeEco and ZTE. In particular, AHOVM owns 80.5% share of China in 3Q18. (CN Beta, Sohu, 199IT, report)

Meitu has announced that Xiaomi is effectively taking over its hardware business. Future phones will carry the Meitu brand, but Xiaomi will be responsible for design, R&D, and sales, while Meitu will still be involved in camera software. Xiaomi will initially pay 1% of phone profits to Meitu, moving to flat per-phone licensing fees after five years or when a certain number of units have been sold overall.  (CN Beta, CN Beta, Washington Post, The Verge, Meitu)

Meitu expects a net loss of approximately CNY950M~1.2B for the year ended by 31 Dec 2018 (compared to a net loss of approximately CNY197M for 2017). Meitu launched 5 new mobile phone models in 2017, and only 1 in 2018. It has lowered the price of the M series (the low-priced series launched in 2017), resulting in a decline in the average selling price of smartphones in 2H19. (East Money, CN Beta)

Xiaomi’s revenue in 3Q18 is CNY50.846B, a substantial increase of 49.1% over the same period of the previous year. The adjusted profit is CNY2.885B, an increase of 17.3% over the same period of the previous year; the growth rate was 36.3%. In the past 3 quarters, Xiaomi’s revenue is CNY130.94B, an increase of 64.1% over the same period of last year. The adjusted profit is CNY6.701B, an increase of 39.3% over the same period of the previous year. (Sina, Washington Post, CN Beta)

OnePlus has clarified that its upcoming 5G phone will not be the OnePlus 7, but will still launch in early 2019. The 5G-enabled OnePlus phone will cost USD650 / EUR650, which is about USD100 over the OnePlus 6T. (GSM Arena, Fudzilla, CN Beta)

Koh Dong-jin, CEO of Samsung Electronics’ smartphone business, is making all-out efforts to seek a breakthrough in the company with the introduction of the 10th edition of the Galaxy and the world’s first commercial foldable smartphone. He felt “sorry about the currently struggling status of the Samsung smartphone business and will do my best to overcome the crisis with the upcoming Galaxy 10 and foldable phones.”  (CN Beta, My Drivers, Korea Herald, Caijing)

Home

LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display is announced, featuring 8” HD display, 5MP camera, and powered by Google Assistant, priced at USD300. LG has partnered with Meridian Audio for the gadget and outfitted the WK9 with stereo 20W speakers that promise to offer “crystal clear audio”. (Android Central, CN Beta)