6-17: Analysts say rumor of Apple canceling dual-camera iPhone cannot be trusted; ASML acquires Hermes Microvision Inc.; Samsung reportedly plans to invest heavily to bolster its 3D NAND manufacturing capacity by 2017; etc.
Analysts say rumor of Apple canceling dual-camera iPhone cannot be trusted; ASML acquires Hermes Microvision Inc.; Samsung Display and LG Display to expand OLED market application; Samsung’s “Smart Glow”; Samsung reportedly plans to invest heavily to bolster its 3D NAND manufacturing capacity by 2017; Synaptics to lay off 9% of workforce; etc.
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Chipset |
| ASML, which provides chip-manufacturing equipment, has agreed to buy Taiwan-based pattern verification systems company Hermes Microvision Inc. for about NTD100 billion (about USD3.09 billion). (Bloomberg, Reuters, MarketWatch, OfWeek) |
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Touch Display |
| According to Digitimes Research, global shipments for smartphone-use touch panels will reach 369.49 million units in 2Q16, increasing 11% sequentially and 6.2% on year. (Digitimes, press)
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| TFT-LCD panel maker HannStar Display has extended production to small- to medium-size touch panels for use in smartphones, tablets, automotive displays and industrial control displays as well as on-cell touch solutions. HannStar currently has a 5.3G TFT-LCD factory and a 5.3G touch panel factory in southern Taiwan, with monthly capacities of 130,000 and 80,000 substrates respectively. (Digitimes, press, China FPD, China Times) |
| Apple patent titled “devices and methods of image-splitting for dual-layer high dynamic range displays” details a method of reducing image artifacts in high dynamic range (HDR) dual-layer LCDs, technology that could theoretically boost a typical display contrast ratio to 1,000,000 to 1. (Apple Insider, USPTO, 163)
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| Samsung Display and LG Display have begun to expand range of OLED markets—Samsung prepping AMOLED screens for laptop use (e.g. HP Spectre x360); while LG ramping up production of small-size OLED displays for handsets (e.g. Xiaomi and Huawei). (Phone Arena, ET News) |
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Camera |
| Samsung will soon introduce Smart Glow, which consists of a coloured luminous ring that surrounds a device’s rear camera. Users can personalize to display priority alerts based on their needs. It will also serve as a photo assistant. (CN Beta, PC Mag, Digital Spy, Hot Hardware, Sam Mobile)
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| In regards to the rumor Apple has cancelled dual-camera iPhone, Morgan Stanley and CLSA analysts confirmed from Alps Electric and LG Innotek that this rumor is not true. Isaiah Research analysts also confirmed from their sources this rumor is hardly true. (Barron’s, blog, ZOL, Softpedia) |
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Memory |
| The memory-IC market conditions are expected to improve in 2H16, thanks to a pick-up in demand for Android and iPhone devices, according to Digitimes. Oversupply in the DRAM sector is expected to ease in 3Q16, while there could be a shortage of NAND flash chips. (Digitimes, press) |
| Samsung Electronics reportedly plans to invest heavily to bolster its 3D NAND manufacturing capacity by 2017. Samsung has not confirmed the news. (CN Beta, Barron’s, blog, Today Online, Korea Economic Daily) |
| LeEco is rumoured to be working on a new flagship phone with the latest Snapdragon 821 chipset and a 8GB RAM. (GSM Arena, GizChina, Tencent, Kejixun)
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| The DRAM market is in the midst of a long-term slump and the average contract selling price has suffered 19 consecutive months of decline. TrendForce reports that the average selling price of DDR4 arrived at USD1.31 May 2016, while DDR3 came to just USD1.25. All suppliers are now under enormous cost pressure. the overall bit supply growth rate after 2017 may fall below 20%, allowing DRAM prices to stabilize. (TrendForce, press, TrendForce[cn], press[cn]) |
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Sensory |
| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes online sharing will eventually go beyond video or virtual reality and extend into people posting their raw emotions and thoughts. He mentioned research in which scientists were able to ascertain what people were thinking about based on MRI scans. (CN Beta, Business Journal, Daily Mail, Inverse, Telegraph)
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Biometrics |
| Synaptics plans to reduced its global headcount by about 9%, according to a SEC filing. It expects to incur costs of USD10 -11 million mostly in severance fees. (TechNews, NASDAQ) |
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Connectivity |
| The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced that its next release, coming late 2016 to early 2017, will be called Bluetooth 5 and will include significantly increased range, speed, and broadcast messaging capacity. This new standard quadruple the range, double the speed.(Android Authority, Business Wire, 163, Tencent) |
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Smartphones |
| Samsung Galaxy Note7 enters mass production in Jul 2016, and estimates are 2.5 million unit shipped for each Aug and Sept 2016 – a total of 5 million by the end of Sept 2016. (GSM Arena, Phandroid, Candou, Tencent) |
| Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun indicates the company will not consider making water-proof phone at this moment because of safety and cost consideration. (CN Beta, ChinaZ, TechWeb) |
| Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced that the Redmi Series has a total of more than 100 million shipments, nearly 110 million, after nearly 3 years of launch. (Gizmo China, My Drivers) |
| Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha believes that Apple 2016 so-called “iPhone 7” will be a modest upgrade. Significant innovations are expected to be pushed out to the 2017 iPhone, which Garcha predicted will break convention and be named an “iPhone 8”, rather than a “7s”. Credit Suisse forecasts project Apple taking 39% of the general smartphone market, with sales of 250 million units in 2018. (CN Beta, Apple Insider, Market Watch) |
| JP Morgan analyst Rod Hall leads his estimate for the holiday quarter of 2016, when he and others expect a new Apple iPhone model, unchanged at 68.17 million units, and USD46.22 billion in revenue. He notes that that is “well below” consensus. (CN Beta, Barron’s, blog) |
| Apple has “misinterpreted the demand” in China and needs to lower the price of its iPhones to compete, according to Peter Garnry, equity strategist at Saxo Bank. (CN Beta, CNBC, Benzinga) |
| The European Commission may deliver its verdict on Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland as soon as next month, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan. (CN Beta, Irish Examiner, Mac Daily News) |
| Apple has offered a set of new data points to illustrate its ecosystem’s robustness. There are more platforms than ever (4 devices and 3 services). Overall, economic activity transacted directly through Apple’s platforms is approaching the run rate of USD40 billion/year. It continues to grow at about 20%, so it’s foreseeable that it will reach at least USD50 billion/year. (Asymco, blog, CN Beta)
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| A Beijing court specializing in intellectual property rights (IPR) has handed down a verdict that the design of the latest Apple iPhones is an infringement of a patent owned by a Chinese company in Shenzhen. Apple’s authorized company in Shanghai has filed a law suit to the IPR court in Beijing requesting to annul the verdict. (TechNews, Morning Post, CRI)
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| Microsoft has acquired messaging and chatbot startup Wand Labs. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. (CN Beta, CNET, Venture Beat, Microsoft) |
| Samsung has acquired Joyent, a company that offers private cloud software and a public cloud infrastructure. (Engadget, WSJ, Joyent, Ubergizmo, Samsung, 163, Xinhuanet) |
| According to LeEco Director of PR Todd Witkemper, LeEco will be making a “big splash” in the U.S. It currently has 400 employees in the states, mostly on the West Coast. By the end of this year, that figure will be up to 1000. (Phone Arena, Phone Scoop, India Times) |
| Mobile money service users worldwide are set to break the 1 billion mark by the end of 2016, equating to 20% of unique mobile users, according to Strategy Analytics. It predicts mobile money transactions to more than double from USD200 billion in value in 2016 to USD571 billion by the end of 2022. (Strategy Analytics, press, EE Trend)
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| Asustek Computer has accounted for about 40% of Arima Communications’ smartphone shipments to become the largest client, followed by LG Electronics with about 20% and Sony Mobile Communications which was the largest client over the past few years. (Digitimes, press) |
| LG launches 4 new smartphones expanding its X series, with dual-SIM LTE: X Power – 5.3” HD display, MediaTek MT6735 processor, 13MP + 8MP cameras, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, 4100mAh battery. X Style – 5.3” HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, 8MP + 5MP cameras, 1.5GB RAM, 16GB storage, 2100mAh battery. X Mach –5.5” QHD IPS Quantum display,1.8GHz hexa-core processor, 12.3MP + 8MP cameras, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage, 3000mAh battery. X Max – “large display” (Ubergizmo, LG, 163, iFeng, Mashable, Android Central)
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Tablets |
| According to IDC, slate tablet assembly industry in 1Q16 has dropped 41% compared to last quarter and dropped 20% compared to last year same quarter because of the phablets. Meanwhile, detachable tablet assembly shipment is also affected by the slow quarter, dropped 35% from last quarter. However, thanks to the new products launched, it is an increase of 154% compared to last year same quarter. (TechNews, IDC, press)
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| Digitimes Research estimates that worldwide top-5 notebook brand vendors and top-3 ODMs both enjoyed 31% on-month shipment growth in May because of preparations for new notebook models and growing demand for Chromebooks. Hewlett-Packard (HP) was the largest vendor in May in terms of shipments. (Digitimes, press) |
| ASUS ZenPad Z8 is exclusive with Verizon – 7.9” 2048×1536 IPS display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, 2MP camera, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, LTE, USB Type-C, 4680mAh battery, USD149.99 with 2 year contract. (GSM Arena, Verizon, CNET, CN Beta, TechSpot)
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| Jide announces Remix Pro – 12” 2160×1440 IPS LCD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 8MP + 5MP cameras, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, Android 6.0 (Remix OS 3.0), 9000mAh battery. (Tab Times, Android Authority, ChinaZ)
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Wearables |
| JP Morgan analyst Rod Hall slashed their Apple Watch estimates for fiscal 2016 to 11.9 million unit shipments from 23.5 million, adding he sees the wearable only penetrating 7% of its addressable base by the end of 2017 vs. previous assumption of 15%. (Barron’s, blog, Yahoo, CNBC, Apple Insider, HiNews, IT Home) |
| MagicLeap is teaming up with Lucasfilm and its ILMxLAB to create immersive Star Wars experiences. (Engadget, Wired, CN Beta)
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| According to Digitimes Research, growing VR ecosystem to accelerate development of VR video market. (Digitimes, press)
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Internet of Things |
| Local Motors introduced the first self-driving vehicle Oli to integrate the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson. The electric vehicle, which can carry up to 12 people, is equipped with some of the world’s most advanced vehicle technology, including IBM Watson IoT for Automotive. (CN Beta, Yahoo, Autoblog)
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| Google is setting up a brand-new research group in Europe focused squarely on machine learning. Based in Google Research offices in Zurich, Switzerland, the new group will focus on three key areas of artificial intelligence: machine intelligence, machine perception, and natural language processing and understanding. (CN Beta, Google, PC World)
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