7-7: Xiaomi wants to focus on high-end products; Lenovo Wuhan factory is surrounded by flood; Alibaba and SAIC launches YunOS-powered Roewe RX5; etc.
Xiaomi wants to focus on high-end products; Lenovo Wuhan factory is surrounded by flood; HTC is to manufacture 2 Nexus smartphones; Google is reportedly making 2 Nexus-branded Android Wear smartwatches; Samsung is reportedly making a new Gear VR; Alibaba and SAIC launches YunOS-powered Roewe RX5; etc.
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Chipset |
| Angstrem has contacted a private Indian company working as a subcontractor for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), offering to supply USD200,000 worth of electronic circuits. (CN Beta, IDRW, The Newspaper)
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Touch Display |
| As the popularity and penetration of wearable and mobile devices increase, so too will demand for innovative flexible displays. In fact, revenue from flexible displays is expected to increase more than 300%, from just USD3.7 billion in 2016 to USD15.5 billion in 2022. Flexible displays will comprise 13% of total display market revenue in 2020, according to IHS. (IHS, press, 199IT)
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| Samsung Display and LG Display will be leading the OLED market for up to 10 years, says Ricky Park, director of IHS. (CN Beta, Korea Herald) |
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Camera |
| Google acquires French image recognition company Moodstocks, which is a startup that develops image recognition tools for smartphones. (CN Beta, Re/Code, Android Police, Google)
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Memory |
| China-based Tsinghua Unigroup reportedly will tie up with Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (XMC) to develop memory products, including NAND flash chips. Tsinghua-XMC team is also approaching Micron, aiming to ink a licensing agreement from the US-based memory company to produce 3D NAND flash products. (Digitimes, press, 52RD, China Times)
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Sensors |
| The growing availability of VR and AR devices will offer growth chances for a number of component suppliers, including sensors, infrared (IR)/laser transmitters and LED chips, according to Digitimes Research. (Digitimes, press) |
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Smartphones |
| Hugo Barra, VP of Xiaomi international, says it is going to focus on premium devices moving forward because their customers are demanding premium products from Xiaomi. (CNET, Android Headlines, SCMP) |
| In an alleged leak of Meizu’s internal emails, Meizu’s CEO Huang Zhang seems to be unhappy with the design of the upcoming Pro 6. If the next generation version of the MX6 and Pro 6 are this similar, then he may consider scrapping the lineup. Meizu’s CEO Huang Zhang made a microblogging post on Weibo: “If not for using Pro 6’s appearance, I think MX6 would be the best MX series smartphone.” (Android Headlines, Gizmo China, Phone Arena, CNW News, ChinaZ)
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| Samsung Electronics is not considering moving its European operations out of Britain despite the Brexit vote. (Android Headlines, Android Truth) |
| Lately (Jul 2016) Wuhan has been having storm, and Lenovo Group SVP Chen Xudong indicates that the factory in Wuhan has been surrounded by flood. ZUK Z2 supply has been affected by the traffic problem and hence in tight supply. (CN Beta, IT Home, Tencent, Gizmo China)
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| Pacific Crest analyst Michael McConnell believes indications from the supply chain point to a 2H16 Apple iPhone 7 ramp of 72-76 million units, which would be down 15-20% as compared to the iPhone 6s/6s Plus in 2H15. (CN Beta, Market Realist, Economic Times, Barron’s, blog, Digitimes, press) |
| While the secondary Apple iPhone market seems to be stable, expectations for iPhone 7 are very low, and may rise modestly ahead of the Sept 2016 launch, says Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. A look at the past three major iPhone launches, namely that of iPhone 4, 5 and 6/6 Plus, reveal that Apple’s shares outperform the S&P 500 by 14% on average 12 weeks ahead of the launch. (CN Beta, Benzinga, Seeking Alpha) |
| It is rumoured that HTC would be building 2 Nexus devices for Google, a 5” “Sailfish” and a 5.5” “Marlin”. (TechNews, Ars Technica, TNW)
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Tablets |
| Japan’s NEC will sell most of its interest in a personal computer joint venture with Lenovo Group to the Chinese partner for about JPY20 billion (USD195 million), using the proceeds for growth investment. (TechNews, Nikkei) |
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Wearables |
| Haitong Securities consolidates a number of third party consultancy agencies VR report, and most of which are having positive view on the market in the future.(Haitong report)
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| Google is reportedly building 2 Nexus-branded Android Wear smartwatches codenamed “Angelfish” and “Swordfish” with Google Assistant integration. (Android Headlines, Android Police, TechRadar, Tencent) |
| According to a listing on the Indian import database Zauba, a Samsung Gear VR with the model number SM-R323 has been shipped from South Korea for testing. (CN Beta, Digital Trends, Phones Review, Zauba, GSM Arena) |
| Analysts Hiroshi Taguchi and Mio Shikanai estimate that Sony Playstation industry dominance, diversification of hardware by adding a PS4 Neo, and strengthening the ecosystem with PS VR and PS Vue will drive PS4 shipment growth through fiscal year by end of March 2018. They raise their PS4 shipment forecast for this mean by end of March 2018 from 17 million units to 21 million units. (Barron’s, blog, TechNews) |
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Internet of Things |
| LG Electronics and Volkswagen jointly develop a connected car platform to enable vehicles to communicate with external devices. (Android Central, CNET, Yahoo, Volkswagen, iFeng, Huanqiu) |
| Stan Hanks, CTO of Columbia Ventures Corp indicates that Apple Car is a bigger threat to Tesla than people think it will be. The main reason is “user experience”, which is what Apple is all about. He is using iPod / iTunes as an example how it has completely changed how people buy music. (CN Beta, Forbes, article)
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| More than 500,000 hoverboards are being recalled for fire concerns. More than half of the recalled devices come from Swagway, one of the best known manufacturers in the space. It is recalling 267,000 of its X1 hoverboard units. (The Verge, Mashable, CN Beta, SlashGear) |
| E-commerce giant Alibaba and SAIC Motor, the country’s biggest car manufacturerlaunch the Roewe RX5, a sports utility vehicle (SUV) featuring smart technology from Alibaba’s operating system YunOS, priced CNY99,800-186,800. (CN Beta, CNBC, Sina, 163, Auto Home, Bloomberg)
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