09-15: MediaTek Helio P22 has allegedly been adopted by Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A-series smartphones; OPPO has announced that it will be among the latest batch of device companies to support Google’s CameraX; etc.
Chipsets
Sigurd Microelectronics will register a new company in Suzhou High-tech Zone, setting up a new factory with a total investment of approximately USD100M, and establish a semiconductor test base for related business. Sigurd also plans to complete equipment settle in late Sept 2019. (Laoyaoba, UDN)
MediaTek Helio P22 has allegedly been adopted by Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A-series smartphones. This is after three3 years, MediaTek has once again won a Samsung’s big order, and will have the opportunity to boost MediaTek’s profit in 2019 to a 3-year high. It is reported that Samsung Galaxy A6, A7 and A8 series models will use MediaTek Helio P22. Due to the low price of Samsung Galaxy A series, the sales volume in the world is good. It is expected that MediaTek Helio P22 can reach the sales level of 50M units. (CN Beta, Laoyaoba, China Times)
MediaTek is set to unveil a new office building in northern Taiwan in mid Sept 2019, which will be dedicated to the development of 5G chip technologies while also serving as the MediaTek’s new headquarters. The new facility “5G R&D Building”, demonstrates the firm’s determination and ambition in the 5G era. (Digitimes, press, UDN, UDN)
Touch Display
Microsoft’s recent patent filing details a clamshell device concept whose hinge is filled with a liquid or gas to reduce strain on a foldable display and prevent debris from getting inside. (Engadget, WIPO, CN Beta)
Apple’s next-generation iPhone SE LCD screen is reportedly produced by Sharp and is about 5” in size (previous generation is 4”). The previously rumored LCD supplier LG Display (LGD) has quit because they think Apple’s offer is too low to make profit. (My Drivers, My Drivers, WCCFTech, CN Beta)
Currently, global major suppliers of thin film packaging materials are Korea-based Samsung SDI, LG Chemical, US-based 3M, and Japan-based Mitsui Chem. China enterprises are mainly Kangdexin Composite MAterial (KDX), Wanshun New Material and China Lucky Group. With the increase in demand for flexible OLED display, the demand for thin film materials reached 4,400km2, up 95.4% year-on-year. It is estimated that the demand will be about 12,000km2 by 2020, and 2016-2020 CAGR will reach 96.38%. (Southwest Securities report)
The most used vaporizer in the small and medium-sized AMOLED panel production line is produced by Canon Tokki of Japan, thanks to Tokki’s stable mass production and mature technology. Additonally, Tokki actively expands its production line and has annual production capacity from 4~5 units to around 12 in 2018. In addition to Tokki being used by China manufacturers, there are SFA and ULVAC. They are also the world’s leading AMOLED production line equipment company. (Southwest Securities report)
Camera
OPPO has announced that it will be among the latest batch of device companies to support Google’s CameraX, the new Android Jetpack support library for camera app development. (Laoyaoba, My Drivers, OPPO, Damobol)
Apple has announced the so-called “Deep Fusion” feature on its iPhone 11-series smartphones promising excellent photos thanks to an advanced machine-learning algorithm. Samsung is allegedly working on a version of its own. (GSM Arena, NDTV)
Crystal-Optech will achieve steady growth in revenue and profit, as 1) multi-camera/periscope lens module and optical screen fingerprint recognition penetration rate increase driving demand for blue glass IRCF; 2) 3D sensing application continues to expand, demand for narrow band filter and wafer level coatings have increased; and 3) new AR product launch gradually increases industry growth potential, and forward-looking layout of new display enables AR lens mass production. (Sohu, Hongzhoukan, Sina, Zhihu, Guosheng Securities report)
Currently, flagship rear-cam is mainly ultrawide+telephoto+wide solution, including Samsung Galaxy S10 series, Huawei P and Mate series and OPPO Reno series, and each 5G model. OPPO and Huawei adopt periscope solution, while LG adopts ultrawide+telephoto+standard solution. Each mid-to-low range models mainly use ultrawide+wide+depth solution, mostly use 2MP~5MP camera sensors. (TRi report)
Battery
OPPO VP Brian Shen has revealed that the upcoming OPPO flagship Reno Ace will be equipped with 65W SuperVOOC charging. (CN Beta, GSM Arena, Weibo, Android Headlines)
Material
In the past month, the rise of the PCB sector was mainly driven by the overall demand boom of the communication PCB industry chain. The market gave higher performance to the mid-year report and the expected growth in the subsequent quarters, and the 5G orders were imported with higher valuations. Performance and valuation double click on the market. (CMS Securities report)
Connectivity
Samsung reportedly will follow Apple to adopt Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology. The FiRa Consortium (the name stands for ‘fine ranging’) includes the likes of Samsung, Bosch, Sony and LitePoint, and they’re all committed to growing the UWB ecosystem. (Laoyaoba, Sohu, Engadget, Samsung, FiRa)
In regards to the lack of 5G support on the iPhone 11 series, Apple CEO Tim Cook has explained that 5G technology is currently ahead of the curve. After research, it is found that the current 5G market is not mature enough for infrastructure or chips to launch a high-quality product. He has also said that if Apple can fully utilize the 4G network speed, 4G still has great potential to tap and upgrade. (CN Beta, The Verge, TechRadar)
OPPO VP Brian Shen believes that ordinary users do not need to look forward to 5G mobile phones in the these 2 years. Due to the influence of network, consumer content and device price, 5G phones will not be widely popular in the short term. The current 5G mobile phone is for manufacturers to display research and development capabilities, build application environments for developers and for a small number of early adopters. (Laoyaoba, C114, Weibo)
Meizu’s former executive Li Nan has emphasized that basically all 5G phones before the Apple iPhone 12 were “experimental”. He has also indicated that iPhone 7 Plus users may consider upgrading iPhone 11, iPhone X and XS users could wait. (My Drivers, Sohu)
Phone
According to IHS Markit, in terms of mobile phone shipments of ODM in 2018, Wingtech ranked first with 90.2M units, accounting for 1/3 of the total market shipments; Huaqin shipped 85M units for the market. The share was 31.3%, mainly due to Wingtech’s adjustment of customer structure, cutting into overseas major customers and giving up part of the domestic share; Longcheer shipped 60M units with a market share of 22.1%. The shipments of the top 3 ODM mobile phone manufacturers accounted for 86.6% of the total market, and the oligopoly pattern in the industry is very obvious. (Southwest Securities report)
According to Southwest Securities, in the first 5 months of 2019, Wingtech has shipped 40.1M units of phones, leading the market with Longcheer and Huaqin. (Southwest Securities report)
Realme XT is launched in India – 6.4” 1080×2340 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 712, rear quad 64MP-8MP ultrawide-2MP macro-2MP depth + front 16MP, under display fingerprint scanner, 4+64 / 6+64 / 8+128GB, Android 9.0, 4000mAh 20W, INR15,999 (EUR200) / INR16,999 (EUR215) / INR18,999 (EUR240). (Android Authority, GSM Arena)
Augmented / Virtual Reality
Daqri, which builds enterprise-grade AR headsets, has allegedly shuttered its headquarter, laid off many of its employees and is selling off assets ahead of a shutdown. (The Verge, TechCrunch)
Home
Smart speaker units shipped is expected to grow 67% in 2019, and penetration of these devices has already reached roughly 1 in 5 consumers in both the U.S. and U.K., while many other markets are catching up as voice assistant technology expands beyond English (Amazon’s Alexa is now up to 7 languages). Current market share of smart speakers is dominated by Amazon at 65% in the U.S., with Google at 20%, Apple at 5% and a long tail of others comprising the remainder. (Credit Suisse report)
Many consumers are increasingly buying more than one smart speaker for their household, and despite press reports regarding privacy concerns, the biggest barrier to adoption appears to be a view that smartphones already meet all of a consumers’ listening needs. (Credit Suisse report)
While it remains early in the proliferation of smart speakers, Credit Suisse’s survey data so far suggests a strong correlation between the type of speaker owned and the corresponding music service listened / subscribed to by the consumer, with owners of Amazon Echo speakers roughly twice as likely to subscribe to Amazon’s music service compared to those who owned Google Home speakers (and similarly for owners of Google speakers and Google’s music service). (Credit Suisse report)
According to Essence Securities, the income growth is stable, and the performance of the home appliance industry is better than the market’s previous pessimistic expectations. In 2Q19, the overall revenue of the household appliance industry increased by 8.4% year-on-year, and the growth rate of the 1Q19 was 2.1% higher than that of 1Q19. The growth rate of the sub-sectors of white electricity, black electricity, lighting and home appliances all rebounded. Since 2018, due to the objective slowdown in domestic macro growth, the increase in tariffs on some export products, the decline in real estate boom, and the pressure on air conditioners in the home appliance industry, the capital market is expected to further decline in 2Q19 industry growth. (Essence Securities report)
