6-28: Samsung and Huawei both reportedly have lowered their 3Q16 shipment targets by 10-20%; Shenzhen Huaxuchang Telcom Technology (HTT) announced dissolve; OPPO is reportedly entering patent licensing deal with Qualcomm; etc.
Samsung and Huawei both reportedly have lowered their 3Q16 shipment targets by 10-20%; Shenzhen Huaxuchang Telcom Technology (HTT) announced dissolve; OPPO is reportedly entering patent licensing deal with Qualcomm; Intel will reportedly start its third wave of layoffs at the end of June 2016; Sony is likely to ship 1-3 million PS VR headsets in fiscal 2016; Acer and Sweeden-based game creator Starbreeze AB have announced the establishment of a joint-venture; etc.
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Chipset |
| OPPO is reportedly entering patent licensing deal with Qualcomm, and will be done in 2 weeks. (CN Beta, 163) |
| Qualcomm announced 5G New Radio (NR) prototype system and trial platform. The 5G NR prototype system operates in the sub-6GHz spectrum bands. (Android Headlines, PR Newswire, Forbes, The Street, OfWeek) |
| Intel will reportedly start its third wave of layoffs at the end of June 2016, targeting mainly its worldwide sales and marketing units. (Digitimes, press, CN Beta) |
| Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) now expect to start the execution of a joint share-exchange MoU reached between the two companies in May by June 30, 2016 instead of the previously-agreed June 25, as the pair are still negotiating. (Digitimes, press, 4-Traders, HEQW) |
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Touch Display |
| According to Digitimes, China panel makers are rushing their AMOLED production. It expects in 2018, the gap between their Korean competitors will be closer, but the upstream supply chain (incl. material and equipment), there are still a substantial gap. (ChinaFPD, article)
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| Japan Display Inc. (JDI) reportedly will reorganize internally its China branch, planning to sell its new fab in Zhuhai, Morningstar Optronic Zhuhai (MOL) to Holitech Technology. It estimates the deal costs JPY1.65 billion. (TechNews, OfWeek) |
| Apple reportedly has informed its supply chain to start changing to OLED displays for all its iPhone products (including old models) starting from 2018. (iFeng, CN Beta) |
| Innolux is constructing the world’s first 8.6G fab in southern Taiwan, with installation of equipment beginning in June and production to begin as early as the end of 2016, according to the company’s associate vice president and TV product general manager Hung Mao-sheng. The fab will have monthly production capacity of 50,000 glass substrates and will produce 50-, 58- and 100-inch TV panels. (Digitimes, press, OfWeek) |
| Microsoft’s new Handpose technology is able to track and scan a user’s real-time movements and gestures with an accurate tracking algorithm. The movements are then scanned into the virtual reality world, which allows the user to interact with objects and the environment. (CN Beta, Win Buzzer, Microsoft, GeekWire)
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Camera |
| Quanta Computer has developed a 360° live VR streaming add-on camera with ImmerVision and will launch the product at the end of 2016. The camera has passed ImmerVision Enables 2.0 certification and features a ImmerVision 360°×187° panomorph lens, and a Sony 16MP Exmor-HDR image sensor. (Digitimes, Business Wire, Hexun)
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| Driven by renewed mobile and automotive applications, the CIS industry is expected to expand at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2015 to 2021, reaching USD18.8 billion market value by 2021. Sony is now a market, production and technology leader. Samsung and Omnivision have remained strong. (Yole Development press, iTers News)
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Biometrics |
| MegaFace Challenge, initiated by University of Washington, is the world’s first competition aimed at evaluating and improving the performance of face recognition algorithms at the million person scale. All of the algorithms suffered in accuracy when confronted with more distractions. Google FaceNet showed the strongest performance on one test, dropping from near- perfect accuracy when confronted with a smaller number of images to 75% on the million person test. (PhysOrg, TechCrunch, Washington EDU, CN Beta)
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| Samsung patent application to USPTO reveals an iris recognition system that employs three lenses to capture the image signal, and then checks the iris of the user based on the image generated as well as other information. (CN Beta, Patently Apple)
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| Two Samsung patents show that the company may be looking at a new approach to improve fingerprint scanning on its smartphones. The first patent details the use of a round Home button under which the fingerprint scanner will be placed. The second patent points to a solution the scanner is placed on the back of the device. (Ubergizmo, Sam Mobile, Patently Mobile, TechWeb)
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Connectivity |
| LeEco launches Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA) industry alliance to promote this standard, also announces 121 patents related to CDLA. LeEco has used USB Type-C on its phones for audio, becoming the first worldwide using CDLA standard. (CN Beta, 163, My Drivers, Gizbot, PC Mag)
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Smartphones |
| According to Digitimes, Samsung and Huawei both reportedly have informed downstream suppliers to reduce their inventories of parts and components prepared for the third quarter as the two vendors have lowered their shipment targets for the quarter by 10-20%, respectively. (Digitimes, press, iFeng, My Drivers) |
| The 2016 Cap Gemini Wealth Manager Survey queried more than 800 wealth managers across 15 major wealth markets. Over the next decade, Asia-Pacific is expected to change the face of global high net worth individuals (HNWI) wealth. Already in the past 10 years (2006-2015), the region has doubled its HNWI population and wealth, boosting population by 99.1% to 5.1 million and wealth by more than 100% to USD17.4 trillion. (199IT, Capgemini report)
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| Ringing Bells says that its ultra low-cost Freedom 251 (INR251) will start shipping on 30 June, with nearly 200,000 units in the early batch. (Engadget, Android Central, Indian Express, TechNews, Digital Trends)
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| Apple’s record as the biggest target in the world for patent claims doesn’t look likely to change any time soon. 2 out of the 3 top rankings for the most international patent filings are Chinese companies: Huawei and ZTE. (9to5Mac, WSJ, CN Beta)
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| “Fortune” magazine indicates that Xiaomi strategy slowly shows disadvantages. The company said last year it has made only USD12.5 billion in sales, well below the USD16 billion that CEO Lei Jun had predicted. Also, in 1Q16, Xiaomi shipped only 10.9 million phones, a 26% YoY decline. Quality problems may be contributing to the steep drop-off. (Fortune, article, Fortune, CN Beta)
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| Shenzhen Huaxuchang Telcom Technology (HTT) announced dissolve on 22 June 2016. It is after Phicomm, ZTX, Zaoxin, Dakele, K-Touch, Amoi, Fuchang, Chuangshi, becoming another company that goes bankrupt. However, it goes bankrupt reportedly because of patent licensing fees and tax problem. (52RD, PCB Partner)
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| A listed bug on Canonical’s bug tracking website, Launchpad, suggests that a new Ubuntu-based device is in the works – codenamed “Midori”, which could be unannounced Meizu device. (CN Beta, Neowin)
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| BlackBerry announced a strategic alliance with PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk. (Emtek) that will provide cross-platform BBM users with access to enriched content and services. (CN Beta, Yahoo, Reuters)
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Wearables |
| Global wearable device wholesale revenues are expected to grow a healthy 31% in 2016 with smartwatches capturing the biggest slice of the wearables revenue pie. By 2022 Strategy Analytics forecasts total wholesale wearable devices revenues will top USD45 billion, driven primarily by smartwatches that will be aided by the major operating systems and their sponsors. (Strategy Analytics, press, 199IT)
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| According to Digitimes, Sony is expected to ship up to 6 million units of PlayStation VR (PS VR) headsets in 2016, accounting for 67% of the global VR HMD market. Daiwa Securities also reported recently that Sony is likely to ship 1-3 million PS VR headsets in fiscal 2016 (April 2016-March 2017) generating revenues of USD400-1,200 million. (Digitimes, press, Nikkei, Tencent) |
| Acer and Sweeden-based game creator Starbreeze AB have announced the establishment of a joint-venture, tentatively named Acer Starbreeze, specifically for design, production, marketing and sale of StarVR head-mounted displays. (Digitimes, ZOL)
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Internet of Things |
| Google has announced Project Bloks, which is a toy system can take on different form factors and be made out of different materials, but the entire purpose is to help kids develop computational thinking and learn basic coding skills. (CN Beta, Android Headlines, Pocket-Lint, Google)
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| US toy start-up Anki launches Cozmo, which is shaped like a miniaturized bulldozer. It has an OLED display, with a camera that can interact with the environment, and compatible with android and iOS. (The Verge, Digital Trends, Pocket-Lint, CN Beta)
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| The drone FLYBi’s camera unit is installed on a gimbal connected to a head-tracking unit which allows the user to control the camera using only the movement of their head. FLYBi has a remote control, a companion app, and a 12MP camera capable of recording 1080HD video. (TechNews, Slate, Digital Trends)
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