06-25: MediaTek has announced a new generation smartphone SoC Helio P65; vivo has announced that it will release 5G commercial phone in China in 3Q19; etc.
Chipsets
TSMC has demonstrated a chipset designed by itself, which uses a 7nm process. It has dimensions of 4.4×6.2mm (27.28 mm2), uses a CoWos (wafer substrate package), a dual-chip structure, built in four Cortex A72 cores, and many more. (GizChina, IT Home)
Taiwan-based IC design houses are expected to enjoy a ramp-up in orders placed by Huawei, which intends to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm and other US chip giants, starting 2H19, according to Digitimes. An estimated 20%-50% increase will boost the related Taiwan-based suppliers’ revenues in 2H19 and 2020. (Digitimes, press, Digitimes, press)
In May 2019, Intel confirmed plans to invest some USD5B in expanding its Kiryat Gat production plant in Israel. Intel is reportedly delaying the setting up of the plan. Intel has announced that it is fully committed to the construction of the Leixlip factory campus in Dublin, Ireland, with a total investment of USD4B. Considering that the fabs in Ireland are mainly 14nm production, Intel’s increased investment is also conducive to alleviating the 14nm capacity shortage. (CN Beta, Times of Israel, Oregon Live, Irish Times)
MediaTek has announced a new generation smartphone SoC Helio P65. It is based on the 12nm process technology and is also claimed to offer 25% faster performance than the competition. The latest chipset is equipped with a pair of ARM Cortex-A75 CPUs operating up to 2GHz and Cortex-A55 processors in a single, octa-core cluster paired with Mali-G52 2EEMC2 GPU. (Android Authority, MediaTek, CN Beta, 91Mobiles)
Touch Display
According to IHS Markit, Microsoft is working on dual-screen Surface, which has two 9” display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The device could be due in 1Q20 / 2Q20. The device, codenamed Centaurus, will also reportedly run Android apps as part of Microsoft’s new Windows Core OS (WCOS) operating system. (Digital Trends, Forbes, The Verge, Neowin, OfWeek, IT Home)
Samsung Display is reportedly planning to make a final decision on investment in QD-OLED TV panels at the end of Jun or early Jul 2019. Samsung Display will place an order for equipment in July and shut down its LCD line at the Asan Campus in Cheonan in Aug and transform it into TV QD-OLED production line. The total investment figure will reach KRW2.5T (USD2.15B) to nearly KRW3T (USD2.58B). (CN Beta, Business Korea, OLED-Info)
Camera
Realme CEO Madhav Sheth has announced on the firm is working on a 64MP smartphone powered by the Samsung LSI GW1 sensor. He claims this will be the first phone with Samsung’s 64MP sensor. Xiaomi and Samsung are reportedly working on 64MP phones too. (Twitter, Android Authority, My Drivers, IT Home)
Memory
University of Lancaster has created a non-volatile memory that might eventually store data for 1% of the energy required by DRAM and 0.1% that of flash – both modelled at 20nm. (CN Beta, Bit-Tech, Science Daily, Electronics Weekly)
Connectivity
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks has indicated that not only should the U.S. continue to prevent Huawei networking equipment from being used to build out 5G networks, the gear should also be removed from older 3G and 4G pipelines. Based on bipartisan legislation, the cost to remove risky networking equipment from Huawei and other suppliers will run USD700M~USD1B. (Phone Arena, CNET, My Drivers)
Phone
Andrew Williamson, Vice President Strategy, President’s Office, PACD at Huawei Technologies has said that the Huawei – US fracas is expected to cause a USD56B export losses and affect 74,000 jobs. It will also affect employment in other fields. (GizChina, My Drivers, CN Beta)
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has stated that there are no successors to the Mi Max and Mi Note lines in 2019. He has confirmed Xiaomi’s focus on the Mi flagship line, Mi Mix series, and the new Mi CC line. (Android Authority, GSM Arena, Weibo, Twitter)
vivo has announced that it will release 5G commercial phone in China in 3Q19. vivo executive VP Hu Baishan has also revealed that vivo will also be involved in 3 categories—AR glasses, smartwatches and smart headphones, which will be launched in 2019 and 2020. vivo has exhibited the first commercial 5G mobile phone based on IQOO, and the product will also be officially released in 3Q19. (CN Beta, Engadget CN, Sina, GSM Arena)
Wearables
Xiaomi has announced that the global shipment of Mi Band 4 has exceeded 1M in just 8 days after its launch, which means daily shipment reaches 5000 units. (GSM Arena, Weibo)
Home
Samsung is expanding the range of its SmartThings line of connected smart home gadgets today with the new USD89.99 SmartThings Cam, USD17.99 SmartThings Wifi Smart Plug, and USD9.99 SmartThings Smart Bulb. The new products work within the SmartThings ecosystem. (CN Beta, The Verge)
Automotive
India’s federal think-tank has asked scooter and motorbike manufacturers to draw up a plan to switch to electric vehicles, days after they publicly opposed the government’s proposals saying they would disrupt the sector. Niti Aayog officials have met with executives from companies including Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and TVS, giving them two weeks to come up with the plan. (CN Beta, DNA India, Reuters, Money Control)
Nissan has expanded its self-driving ProPilot technology to be available across the full range of automatic Qashqai models. (Pocket-Lint, Cars UK, Fleet News)
Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicle tech company, is investing USD15M to establish a Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research at Carnegie Mellon University to improve self-driving technology. (CN Beta, Forbes, The Verge, CMU)
Payment
According to Analysys, the overall transaction scale of the comprehensive payment business of China’s non-financial payment institutions in 1Q19 reached CNY58957.51B, an increase of 0.97% from the previous month. Alipay, Tencent Financial and UnionPay Business ranked the top 3 with 45.58%, 32.95% and 9.34% market share respectively. The total market share of the top 3 reached 87.88% (Analysys, CN Beta)
Fintech
The cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has reached a milestone in its new climb to reach new highs. It has topped USD10,000. This is the first time in over 12 months since bitcoin has been worth more than UD10,000 after it slipped in price in 1H18. (Neowin, Crypto.com, Huanqiu, CN Beta)
