5-1 Happy Labor Day: China has lost 136 handset vendors in one year; Intel cancels SoFIA and Broxton chipsets; MediaTek reported 1Q16 gross margin consolidated revenues NTD55.91bln; etc.
China has lost 136 handset vendors in one year; Intel cancels SoFIA and Broxton chipsets; Google and Sony have smart contact lens patents; MediaTek has reported gross margin for 1Q16 fell further to 38.1% while consolidated revenues decreased 9.4% sequentially to NTD55.91bln; Qualcomm confirms there are more than 115 design in using Snapdragon 820 processor; etc.
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Chipset |
| Apple has quickly moved to overhaul the equipment installed at the San Jose, Calif., chip fab it acquired from Maxim Integrated Products in December 2015 (internally referred as “Athena”), indicating that the purchase was a strategic priority for the company in its relentless drive to out-innovate its competitors. (Apple Insider, Sohu)
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| Analyst Pan Jiutang revealed that MediaTek Helio X30 will be manufactured using a 10nm manufacturing process. It will come with ten CPU cores – the Cortex-A35 will be used for non-demanding tasks, while the heavy lifting will be done by the yet unreleased “Artemis”. (TechNews, CN Beta, GSM Arena, Pocket Now)
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| MediaTek has reported gross margin for 1Q16 fell further to 38.1% while consolidated revenues decreased 9.4% sequentially to NTD55.91 billion (USD1.73 billion). Intense competition continued in the handset-IC market, putting MediaTek’s gross margin under pressure. The company already saw its gross margin fall below 40% in 4Q15. (Digitimes, press, TechNews)
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| MediaTek forecast that its 2Q16 shipments of smartphone and tablet chips will fall in a range of 135-145 million units compared with 110 million units during 1Q16. (EE Times, WTouTiao) |
| In a report on Intel’s new strategy published by analyst Patrick Moorhead, and confirmed by Intel that Intel is radically changing their smartphone SoC plans, cancelling their forthcoming Broxton (smartphone and tablet) and SoFIA products and in practice leaving the smartphone market for at least the time being. (Android Headlines, Android Authority, AnandTech, Forbes, My Drivers) |
| Qualcomm revealed an additional 115 devices powered by the Snapdragon 820 are already in development and planned for a market release by the end of 2016 and throughout 2017. (Android Headlines, Phone Arena, My Drivers)
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| Digital security solutions firm Tyfone is launching a new challenge at MIT focused on IoT security. Participants will be finding new ways to secure a Raspberry Pi-based IoT device or service by using the firm’s Connected Smart Card. (Read/Write, Tyfone, Market Wired)
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| Samsung Electronics introduced open-type data exchange platform called ‘Samsung ARTIK Cloud’ that can connect IoT devices with Cloud service and announced its partnership with Legrand, which specializes in establishing digital building infrastructures, and industrial IoT business called Digibe Software. (Ubergizmo, ET News, IT Home)
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Display |
| LG Display plans to invest KRW450 billion (USD395.99 million) in South Korea to build production capacity for flexible OLED displays and OLED lighting panels. (Phone Arena, Reuters, Financial Times, Tencent) |
| In a patent filed by Google, inventors detailed a new kind of device that people can rip and then put back together. When the screen is modified, the contents are modified as well. (CNN, USPTO, CN Beta, KSL)
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Camera |
| Google’s patent describes a device is injected in fluid that then solidifies to couple the device with the eye’s lens capsule, the transparent membrane surrounding the lens. Injection would take place “following the removal of the natural lens from the lens capsule”. The device contains storage, sensors, radio, battery and an electronic lens. (Engadget, Forbes, USPTO, Sina)
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| Sony’s patent application describes a pair of lenses with an organic electroluminescence display screen that can view video, images, and other information. An onboard video recorder lets users record what they see with autofocus, exposure and aperture adjustment, and zooming to optimize the quality of the video. Sony contact lens can be controlled by the user with the blink of an eye. (Digital Trends, USPTO, IT Home, TechWeb)
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Battery |
| Though energy harvesting has failed to take off to date – it is uneconomic compared with installed battery – it will drive semiconductor sales worth USD3 billion in 2020, according to Semico Research. (EE Times, Semico, press) |
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Smartphones |
| Indian local government officials are reportedly prepared to waive a longstanding regulatory hurdle that prohibited Apple from operating its own brick-and-mortar retail shops. (Apple Insider, India Times, Inside Retail, CN Beta) |
| Samsung Electronics is already thinking about generations beyond smartphones, said the President Ko during his keynote speech at SDS 2016. (ET News, Xinhua)
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| According to China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR), in Jan-Mar 2016, there are 274 smartphone models launched in China market. However, the number of China handset vendors is decreasing, in 2014 there were 445 vendors, and in 2015 the number dropped to 309, which means in one year 136 handset vendors are gone. (Sina, press, CN Beta) |
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Wearables |
| Samsung BedTime VR Stories is a new Gear VR app that lets parents experience a story together with their children. (Samsung, Engadget, CN Beta)
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| Xiaomi smartwatch for kids Mi Bunny Smartwatch – can make and receive calls and to track users’ whereabouts, alerts parents when their kids wander out of the virtual fence they’ve set up, SOS button, CNY299. (Engadget, GSM Arena, Xiaomi, Yesky, IT168)
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Internet of Things |
| The Longquan (Dragon Spring) Temple in Beijing is spreading Buddhist teachings with the help of an adorable, two-foot-tall monk. His name is Xian’er, and he’s a robot with a touchscreen chest. (Engadget, New York Times, The Verge, Huanqiu)
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| Entertainment company Rovi announced that it has officially acquired DVR maker TiVo in a deal worth USD1.1 billion. (CN Beta, WSJ, Ars Technica) |
| Over the course of the 20th century, farm employment in the United States dropped to 2% of the work force from 41%, even as output soared. Since 1950, manufacturing’s share has shrunk to 8.5% of non-farm jobs, from 24%. It still has a ways to go. (New York Times, press, CN Beta)
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| Part of the survey conducted by J D Powers asked if buyers trusted self-driving technology. Broken down by generation, 55% of Generation Z said yes, compared to 56% of Gen Y, 41% of Gen X, 23% of Baby Boomers and 18% of Pre-Boomers. (CN Beta, CNET, J D Power, press)
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| Puma BeatBot is developed by a NASA robotics engineer, a trio of MIT students and Puma’s ad agency, which follows lines around a track at any pace a runner wants. (Engadget, TechCrunch, Fast Company, CN Beta)
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| Noria Home crowdsourced Noria smart air-conditioner is branded as the “first window air conditioner designed entirely with you in mind”. Standing less than 6 inches tall, Noria trims the total size of the AC unit by 40%. (Digital Trends, Kickstarter, IoT Home, East Money)
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| LeEco super car co-founder Ding Lei indicates that LeSEE concept car will be put into mass production and sales soon. (CN Beta, Reading Eagle) |
