IF / News

Chipsets

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon X55, its second-generation 5G New Radio (NR) modem. It is a 7nm single-chip integrated 5G to 2G multimode modem that supports 5G NR mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum bands with up to 7 gigabits per second (Gbps) download speeds and 3 Gbps upload speeds over 5G, and Category 22 LTE with up to 2.5 Gbps LTE download speeds. (Android Central, Android Authority, Qualcomm, CN Beta)

Apple will be reportedly switching away from Intel processors for its Mac lineup in favor of its own in-house ARM chips as soon as 2020.  (CN Beta, 9t05Mac, Apple Insider, Axios)

Camera

[MWC2019] Light has announced collaboration with Sony to jointly work on development and marketing of multi-image sensor solutions. The agreement allows Light to use and recommend to its customers and partners, Sony’s image sensors built in Light’s computational imaging solutions and reference designs. (CN Beta, Pocket-Lint, Engadget, Globe Newswire)

Memory

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced the publication of JESD209-5, Low Power Double Data Rate 5 (LPDDR5). LPDDR5 will eventually operate at an I/O rate of 6400 MT/s, 50% higher than that of the first version of LPDDR4. (GizChina, Business Wire, JEDEC, IT Home)

Intel’s own working MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random-Access Memory) is ready for production in high-volume manufacturing. MRAM, at its current production characteristics, enables 10-year data retention at 200°C, and endurance of more than 10⁶ switching cycles. (CN Beta, Tech Powerup)

South Korea’s SK Hynix has said it would spend USD107B building four factories. The chip fabrication plants will be built on a 4.5Mm² site south of Seoul beginning 2022, complementing two existing domestic factories that will receive a separate KRW55T (USD49B) investment over the next decade. (CN Beta, Business Korea, Reuters, CNBC)

TrendForce forecasts that the ongoing oversupply will result in significant price declines for DRAM products during 1H19. Demand remains weak in 1Q19 due to the off-season and the high inventory level that was carried over from the previous quarter. Contract prices of DRAM products across all major application markets already registered declines of more than 15% MoM in Jan, and they will continue their descent in Feb and Mar 2019.  (TrendForce[cn], TrendForce, press)

TrendForce reports that the rising economic uncertainties caused some server manufacturers to delay restocking or cancel orders, and compelled those upstream in the supply chain to make adjustments to their production lines, damaging their ability to stock up. Furthermore, Apple sales did not meet expectations in the new quarter, and the need to switch phones experienced a decline; laptop demands were impacted by the Intel CPU shortage. Bit-shipments did not perform as well as expected, despite the continual increase in average memory storage. All this led to a drop in revenue by 16.8% QoQ for brand owners in 4Q18. (TrendForce[cn], TrendForce, press)

Connectivity

Ericsson and OPPO have signed a global patent license agreement. This initial agreement includes a cross license covering the 2G, 3G and 4G patent portfolios from both companies. (GizChina, Ericsson, Mobile World Live, OfWeek, CCIDNet)

Peraso Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company and leader in the development of mmWave technology and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) chipsets, has announced that it has raised an additional USD42M, which is co-led by two strategic investors and existing investor Roadmap Capital. (CN Beta, Mobile Syrup, Peraso)

Vodafone has said that it has completed first commercial trials in Madrid and Barcelona to connect 5G smartphones with its network. The company said its mobile network in Europe is ready to be upgraded to 5G as the operator prepares for 2019 launch in major European cities. (CNN Beta, Money Control, Telecoms)

Huawei India CEO Jay Chen says it has been embraced by the Indian government despite concerns elsewhere over the security of its products. Huawei India CTO Radhey Shyam Sarda said the company has already started installing some of 5G technologies in Indian telecom networks and more will be done soon as 4G networks evolve and demand for 5G starts coming in. (CN Beta, First Post, CNN)

Across 77 countries studied by OpenSignal, 4G download speeds are 31.2Mbps~5.8Mbps faster at the best hour of day compared with the slowest hour of the day. Congestion on current 4G networks is holding back speeds highlighting the need for new 5G capacity to relieve pressure. 5G will provide a blanket of capacity, built using new highbandwidth, high-frequency spectrum bands that will help mitigate the daily cycle of congestion we see on today’s 4G networks. These 5G services will support more simultaneous users at very fast speeds. (OpenSignal, report, Android Headlines)

Phone

Samsung has announced that in the past 9 years (from 2010 till now), the company has sold more than 2B Galaxy Phones, which should have included Galaxy S series, Note series, and other mid-to-low end Galaxy series phones. (CN Beta, GSM Arena)

The policy proposed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) India aims to promote domestic manufacturing and export in the entire value-chain of ESDM for economic development to achieve a turnover of USD400B (about INR26,00,000 crore) by 2025. The policy states that it will include a targeted production of 100 crore mobile handsets by 2025, valued at approximately INR 13,00,000 crore and 60 crore mobile handsets valued at approximately INR 7,00,000 crore for export. (CN Beta, Jargan Josh, Gplus)

Razer has announced that it was closing the Razer Game Store as a part of company realignment plans. Razer has allegedly laid off the majority of its mobile device and hardware engineer staff, and  a future Razer Phone 3 has been cancelled. (Engadget, Droid-Life, JRJ, Engadget CN)

Apple will reportedly allow developers to create a single app, known as single binary, that will work across iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Apple already revealed part of this work, codenamed Marzipan. By 2021, developers will be able to merge iPhone, iPad, and Mac applications into one app or what is known as a “single binary”.  (The Verge, Bloomberg, My Drivers, 36Kr, Cocoa China)

Xiaomi Mi 9 is announced – 6.39” 2280×1080 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, rear tri 48MP-16MP-12MP + front 20MP, 6 / 8 / 12GB + 128 / 256GB, Android 9.0, under-display fingerprint scanner, 20W wireless charging, 3300mAh 27W fast charging, from CNY2999. (Android Authority, Android Central, CN Beta, GizChina)

Xiaomi Mi 9 SE is also announced – 5.97” 1080×2280 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 712, rear tri 48MP-8MP-13MP + front 20MP, 6+64/128GB, Android 9.0, under-display fingerprint scanner, 3080mAh 18W fast charging, from CNY1,999. (GizChina, CN Beta, Weibo)

vivo V15 Pro is announced in India – 6.59” 1080×2316 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, rear tri 48MP-8MP-5MP + front pop-up 32MP, 6/8+128GB, Android 9.0, under-display fingerprint scanner, 4500mAh, INR28,990 (USD405). (GizChina, CN Beta, GSM Arena)

vivo U1 is announced in China –  6.2” 720×1520 HD+, Qualcomm Snapdragon 439, rear dual 13MP-2MP + front 8MP, 3+32/64GB or 4+64GB, Android 8.1, 4030mAh, IP58 rated, face unlock,  rear fingerprint scanner, from CNY799. (CN Beta, NDTV, GSM Arena)

[MWC2019] LG Q60, K50 and K40 mid-range phones are announced, powered by octa-core 2GHz, rear fingerprint scanner: Q60 – 6.26” 720×1520 HD+, rear tri 16MP-2MP-5MP + front 13MP, 3+64GB,  3500mAh. K50 – 6.26” 720×1520 HD+, rear dual 13MP-2MP + front 13MP, 3+32GB, 3500mAh. K40 – 5.7” 720×1440 HD+, rear 16MP + front 8MP, 2+32GB, 3000mAh. (Neowin, GSM Arena, LG)

[MWC2019] Samsung’s foldable phone Galaxy Fold is announced – Main 4.6” 1680×720 HD+ 21:9 Super AMOLED + Cover 7.3” 2048×1536 QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, rear tri 12MP wide OIS-12MP tele OIS-12MP UW + front dual 10MP-8MP 12+512GB + cover single 10MP, 12+512GB, side mounted fingerprint scanner, 4380mAh 18W fast charging, wireless charging, NFC, USB Type-C, USD1,980. (Android Authority, GSM Arena, CN Beta)

[MWC2019] Samsung Galaxy S10 series is announced, powered by Samsung Exynos 9820 Octa / Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Android 9.0: S10e – 5.8” 1080×2280 FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, rear dual 12MP(W)OIS-16MP(UW) + front 10MP, 6+128GB / 8+256GB, side mounted fingerprint scanner, 3100mAh 15W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, USD750 / USD850. S10 – 6.1” 1440×3040 QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, rear tri 12MP(W)OIS-12MP(tele)OIS-16MP(UW)+front 10MP, 8+128/512GB, under display fingerprint scanner, 3400mAh 15W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, USD900 / USD1500. S10+ – 6.4” 1440×3040 QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, rear tri 12MP(W)OIS-12MP(tele)OIS-16MP(UW)+front dual 10MP-8MP, 8+128/512GB or 12GB+1TB, under display fingerprint scanner, 4100mAh 15W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, USD1000 / USD1250 / USD1600. (GSM Arena, GSM Arena, Android Authority)

[MWC2019] Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is announced – 6.7” 1440×3040 QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon855, rear quad 12MP wide OIS-12MP tele OIS-16MP UW+ToF + front dual 10MP-ToF, 8+256GB, Android 9.0, under display fingerprint scanner, 4500mAh 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging. (GSM Arena, Liliputing, Android Headlines)

Gionee F205 Pro is announced in India – 5.45” 720×1440 HD+, MediaTek MT6739WW, rear 13MP + front 5MP, 2+16GB, Android 8.1, 3000mAh, INR5,890. (Gizmo China, 91Mobiles, Telecom Talk)

Wearables

[MWC2019] Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Fit / Fit e and Galaxy Buds are announced: Watch Active – 1.1” 360×360 full colour always-on-display, Samsung Exynos 9110, 768MB+4GB, Tizen OS, 230mAh, 5ATM+IP68, NFC, USD200. Fit / Fit e – 0.95” 120×240 colour AMOLED (Fit) / 0.74” 64×128 colour AMOLED (Fit e), heart-rate sensor, sleep and stress tracking, 5ATM, Realtime OS, from USD100. Buds – features AKG tuning, Adaptive Dual Microphones to make phone calls crystal clear, and up ot 6 hours of music playback on one charge, charging case adds up to 7 more hours, USD130. (Android Central, GSM Arena, Gizmo China, Engadget CN, IT Home)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

[MWC2019] HTC announces Vive Focus Plus standalone VR headset with 2 motion controllers – 3K 2800×1620 AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, supports 6 degrees of freedom. (Gizmo China, CN Beta, Tom’s Guide)

Varjo’s industrial VR-1 headset combines a super high-resolution center panel with an ordinary screen for peripheral vision. Its center panel is called a “Bionic Display.” It is a 1920×1080 “micro-OLED” display with a resolution of 3,000ppi. Outside that super crisp panel, there is a 1440×1600 display that produces images of more average quality. It is priced at USD5,995. (CN Beta, CNBC, Engadget, Ars Technica)

Home

Xiaomi’s XiaoAI touchscreen speaker features a 4” display that has space for a custom digital clock. The display can also be used to select music and watch videos and a variety of apps can be installed on the device. it also comes with an alarm clock. The smart speaker will come with a large number of video resources as well as Tencent’s Q music library.  (Engadget, Xiaomi, Gizmo China, Sina)

LG has announced that it plans to “aggressively” expand its line-up of voice-controlled smart home ThinQ appliances in 2019. The firm said it plans to bring its appliances to 21 more countries by Apr 2019 up from the current 6. (Neowin, LG, CN Beta)

Robotics

Robotics startup Vincross has announced the close of a USD10M funding round led by Lenovo. The funds will be used to expand the Vincross line of robotics, starting with Mind Kit, a collection of essential parts hobbyists and tinkerers can configure to make versatile robots capable of completing a range of tasks — like playing the drums, seasoning your food, and crawling into cramped spaces. (TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Sina, CCIDNet)

Artificial Intelligence

According to Voicebot, Google Actions in Jan 2019 reached 4,253, reflecting a 2.5 times growth over 2018. Total Google Actions in Jan 2019 developed by third-parties available to U.S. user were about 7.5% of the total Alexa skills for the same user base. (GizChina, Android Headlines, Voicebot.ai, press, Of Week)

Payment

Apple is working with Goldman Sachs on a joint credit card that the companies plan to roll out spring 2019. The card will use Mastercard’s network. Additionally, card users are expected about 2% in cash back on the majority of purchases. (Engadget, WSJ, Apple Insider, CNBC, CN Beta)

Fintech

Samsung’s latest flagship phone Galaxy S10 will include a dedicated secure storage function designed for cryptocurrency private keys. Galaxy S10 is built with defense-grade Samsung Knox, as well as a secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services. (CN Beta, Coin Desk, Samsung)