5-3: 1Q16 India smartphone market grows 23%; AMOLED panel shipment in 2016 would be 353mln; Cypress acquires Broadcom IoT business; etc.
1Q16 India smartphone market grows 23%, becoming world’s second biggest smartphone market; Qualcomm launches Zeroth SDK; Cypress acquires Broadcom IoT business; AMOLED panel shipment in 2016 would be 353mln, LTPS LCD to be 564mln; Xiaomi and Huawei rumored to launch curved display phones in Sept 2016; etc.
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Chipset |
| Samsung and NVIDIA have decided to privately settle their long-running patent lawsuits with licensing deals. (Android Central, NVIDIA, Bloomberg, CN Beta) |
| Qualcomm announces its first deep learning SDK for Snapdragon 820 processors. The new SDK (Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine) runs on top of Qualcomm’s Zeroth Machine Intelligence Platform and is designed to leverage the heterogeneous compute capabilities of the Snapdragon 820. (CN Beta, PC Mag, Slash Gear, Extreme Tech)
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| Cypress acquires Broadcom’s Wireless IoT business and related assets in an all-cash transaction valued at USD550 million. (OfWeek, HC360, Cypress, The Street) |
| According to SIA, worldwide sales of semiconductors reached USD26.1 billion for the month of March 2016, a slight increase of 0.3% compared to the previous month’s total of USD26.0 billion. Sales from 1Q16 were USD78.3 billion, down 5.5% compared to the previous quarter and 5.8% lower than 1Q15. (SIA, press, TechNews) |
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Display |
| Microsoft Pre Touch function can detect user’s fingers when they are hovering above the screen as well as the way user is gripping the phone to anticipate where he is planning to place your finger. It can then bring up appropriate context menus before the display is touched. (Microsoft, Android Authority, CN Beta, Phandroid, Liliputing, CNMO)
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| Xiaomi and Huawei are rumored to launch curved display phones around Sept. 2016 – Xiaomi to use LGD technology while Huawei to use Samsung’s. (DDN, CN Beta)
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| The Netherlands – Flex-o-Fab, a major collaborative project run by Holst Centre, has successfully completed its goals in the development of flexible OLED, including developing indium-free electrodes (based on ZTO with a supporting metal grid) and brighter OLEDs (light emission was enhanced by about 30% using a plastic substrate with outcoupling features). (Display Plus, OLED-Info, Eindhoven Campus)
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| Samsung Electronics co-CEO Kwon Oh-hyun will take charge of the Samsung Display unit, which is groping for fresh revenue streams as prices fall. (4-Traders, WSJ, CECB2B, Donga) |
| UBI Research says that the OLED materials market is set to grow at a CAGR of 46% from 2016 to 2021, to reach USD4.3 billion. In 2016 itself OLED emitters will record USD677 million – a 16% increase from 2015. (OLED-Info, OfWeek)
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| Samsung OLED panel shipment rapidly increased for Chinese smartphone brands in 2H15, while that of LTPS LCD was slower than normal – AMOLED 257mln in 2015 and 353mln in 2016; LTPS LCD 493nlm in 2015 and 564mln in 2016. (IHS presentation)
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| According to IHS, AMOLED HD has rapidly increased from 4Q15 in terms of shipment, and QHD surpassed FHD in 2015, and will continue throughout 2016. (IHS presentation)
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| According to IHS, aggressive investment for LTPS LCD, AMOLED is expected to make a-Si small-medium LCD demand lower furthermore. PC panel production continues to shift from G5 to G6 and larger fabs. a-Si LCD G5 becoming difficult to keep utilization. (IHS presentation)
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| IHS expects Samsung OLED demand to be more than 230 million in 2016 and grow close to 300 million in the near future. Apple total FPD demand is expected to be close to 300 million panels in the future. (IHS presentation)
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| The integration between Foxconn, Innolux and Sharp could be shown in the table provided by IHS. (IHS presentation)
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Connectivity |
| Amazon is investing between USD250,000-USD500,000 in Bluetooth technology company TrackR to extend the reach of its Alexa virtual assistant. (CN Beta, Fortune, Yahoo)
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Smartphones |
| According to the latest report published by Counterpoint Research, the Indian smartphone market grew 23% in 1Q16. Samsung holds the top 1 position with 29% of the market share, follows by Micromax with 17% share. (Android Headlines, Counterpoint Research, press, 199IT)
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| BlackBerry CEO John Chen stressed again that smartphone is the company’s factor to success, and he believes “they are very close”. He “truly believes” the hardware business will go on. (Android Authority, CNBC, Bloomberg, Yesky) |
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Wearables |
| Coach to make 9 bands for Apple Watch for USD150 each, may not ship until this fall. (Apple Insider, Haute Eriture, CN Beta)
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| Technavio forecasts the classroom wearable technology market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 45.52% during the period 2016-2020. (Read/Write, The Guardian, Research and Markets) |
| The Electronic Software Association (ESA) annual report reveals that up to 40% of frequent game-players intend to buy a virtual reality headset in 2016, while the console could be becoming less important as a gaming platform. (Yahoo, CN Beta, Venture Beat, ESA report)
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