IF / News

Unisoc has announced the successful upgrade of its 5G and 4G mobile platforms to Android 15. This update covers platforms such as the T820, T770, T765, T760, T750 for 5G, and T620, T619, T616, T615, T612, and T606 for 4G. As per the chip maker, the upgrade aims to enhance performance, boost security, and introduce new features to improve user experiences.(Sina, Gizmo China)

Qualcomm has allegedly approached Intel to explore a potential acquisition.  Qualcomm has explored the possibility of acquiring portions of Intel’s design business and that its PC design unit was of particular interest. Qualcomm executives were examining Intel’s entire portfolio of businesses. The conversations with Intel are at an early stage. How Qualcomm, which has a market value of USD188B, would finance a bid for Intel, which is valued at USD122B, including its debt is unknown.  (Android Authority, WSJ, Reuters, Bloomberg)

According to Digitimes, Apple is poised to equip iPhones with its self-developed 5G modem by 2025. The latest iPhone SE is expected to be the first recipient, potentially arriving as early as 2H25, followed by select models of the iPhone 17 series in the second half of the year. Shipments of Apple’s in-house 5G chips are projected to surpass 100M units by 2026. Apple’s self-developed Wi-Fi chips are also anticipated to debut around 2025, though the specific product and timeline for their introduction remain uncertain. Initial deployment is likely to target smartphones and tablets. As Apple’s in-house 5G modem has yet to incorporate mmWave technology, the company will still rely on Qualcomm’s technical support. The key question is whether Apple can achieve a breakthrough in mmWave technology before its modem licensing agreement with Qualcomm expires in 2027. (Apple Insider, Digitimes)

Qualcomm has announced that it will lay off 226 employees in San Diego later in 2024. The layoffs are part of the company’s business diversification strategy. Qualcomm’s upcoming layoffs of hundreds of workers in the region were announced in a California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice. Qualcomm’s latest layoffs will affect its employees at 16 facilities across San Diego. Notably, the company’s headquarters facility is also affected by the layoffs, which have a cybersecurity presence.(Android Headlines, TechCrunch, San-Diego Union Tribune)

Qualcomm has announced its new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus processor designed for laptops in the USD700 to USD900 price range. The processor is below the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite and 10-core Snapdragon X Plus models and has the same architecture, but is weaker in graphics, making it ideal for entry-level laptops. The 8-core Snapdragon X Plus has 12MB less CPU cache (30MB in total) and less than half the GPU power for games and productivity apps. That means about 50% worse graphics performance (per Qualcomm’s own benchmarks), a 20% dip below the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite in CPU tasks, and about the same productivity performance as the 10-core X Plus processors. (Liliputing, Qualcomm, GSM Arena)

Apple has debuted its A18 system-on-a-chip, the successor to the A17 Pro. A18 is built on a second-gen 3nm process, which features a six-core CPU and five-core GPU. Apple promises a 30% improvement in CPU performance over the A16 Bionic. Similarly, for the GPU, it promises a 40% improvement. As for the 16-core Neural Engine, the same number of cores we saw on the A17 Pro, Apple promises it will see a 2x improvement. A18 Pro features a six-core CPU, which is 15% faster than the A17 Pro. The 16-core Neural Engine promises 35 TOPS, comparable to the A17 Pro. A18 Pro is 17% more memory bandwidth, which matters for larger on-device models. All of this means that Apple Intelligence will run 15% faster on the iPhone Pro 16 when compared to last year’s models. Apple also updated the image-processing capabilities of the A18 Pro chips, which now promise a 2x improvement for video encoding, for example. (TechCrunch, Ars Technica, TechRadar, 9to5Mac)

Europe’s second-top court largely confirmed an EU antitrust fine imposed on Qualcomm revising it down slightly to EUR238.7M (USD265.5M) from an initial EUR242M. The European Commission imposed the fine in 2019, saying that Qualcomm sold its chipsets below cost between 2009 and 2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to thwart British phone software maker Icera, which is now part of Nvidia.Qualcomm argued that the 3G baseband chipsets singled out in the case accounted for just 0.7% of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) market and so it was not possible for it to exclude rivals from the chipset market. (GSM Arena, Reuters)

Intel allegedly lost out on a contract to design and fabricate Sony’s PlayStation chip in 2022, which dealt a significant blow to its effort to build its fledgling contract manufacturing business. The effort by Intel to win out over Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in a competitive bidding process to supply the design for the forthcoming PlayStation 6 chip and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) as the contract manufacturer would have amounted to billions of dollars of revenue and fabricating thousands of silicon wafers a month. Sony’s console business could have pumped roughly USD30B into Intel over the course of the contract, according to Intel’s internal projections. The PlayStation 2 sold roughly 150M units since its launch in 2000. (Neowin, Reuters)

The Intel 18A process node is expected to bring refinements to RibbonFET, delivering a major jump in transistor performance. RibbonFET is Intel Foundry’s implementation of a Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor that improves density and performance compared to FinFET. Intel’s next major process node was not meeting customer expectations, Intel provided an update on Intel 18A. Since releasing the Intel 18A Process Design Kit (PDK) 1.0 in Jul 2024, Intel says it has received positive responses from its ecosystem. The company confirmed that Intel 18A is “powered on, booting on operating systems, and yielding well”. Due to the positive progress of Intel 18A, Intel has decided to shift engineering resources from Intel 20A earlier than expected. As a result, Intel’s latest Arrow Lake processor family could be built primarily using TSMC and packaged by Intel Foundry.(Reuters, Neowin)

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has indicated that the processors for Apple’s 2025 iPhone 17 models will be made by TSMC’s N3P process (3nm) technology. The processor for 2026 iPhone 18 models is anticipated to use TSMC’s 2nm technology. However, due to cost concerns, not all new iPhone 18 models may be equipped with a 2nm processor. In 2023, Apple adopted 3nm chips for its iPhones and Macs. Both the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro models and the M3 series chips in Macs are built on the 3nm node, an upgrade over the prior 5nm node. TSMC plans to start manufacturing 2nm chips in late 2025, and Apple is expected to be the first company to receive chips built on the new process. In between the ‌3nm‌ and 2nm nodes, TSMC will introduce several new ‌3nm‌ improvements. TSMC has already come out with N3E and N3P chips that are enhanced ‌3nm‌ processes, and there are other chips in the works such as N3X for high performance computing and N3AE for automotive applications. (MacRumors, Twitter)

With aggressive pricing and promotion of MiniLED LCD TVs, Chinese brands led by TCL and Hisense gained share and drove growth in the Advanced TV market in 2Q24, according to Display Supply Chain Consultant (DSCC). For the first time ever, shipments of MiniLED TVs surpassed shipments of OLED TVs, and MiniLED TVs captured more than 50% share of both units and revenues in the “super premium” category. Samsung fared poorly and lost share in Advanced TVs while TCL and Hisense gained share and Xiaomi emerged to break into the top 5 in the premium segment. Advanced TV shipments grew 44% YoY in 2Q24. OLED TV shipments increased 21% YoY while Advanced LCD TV shipments increased 52% YoY. (Gizmo China, IT Home, DSCC)

Display Supply Chain Consultants analyst Ross Young has revealed that Apple’s standard iPhone 17 and a slimmer model “iPhone 17 Air” will both feature ProMotion, meaning that each device’s display would be able to ramp up to a 120Hz refresh rate. ProMotion would also allow the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air displays to ramp down to a more power-efficient refresh rate. iPhone 13 Pro models can ramp down to 10Hz, while iPhone 14 Pro through iPhone 16 Pro models can go as low as 1Hz, allowing for an always-on display that shows various Lock Screen elements even when the device is locked. It is unclear if the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Air would ramp down to 10Hz or 1Hz. The standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus still have 60Hz displays. (Android Headlines, MacRumors)

Google is working with Muon Space, the Earth Fire Alliance, and others to launch FireSat, a constellation of satellites that will monitor Earth’s surface for wildfires, updating imagery for authorities every 20 minutes. Google helped develop the infrared sensors that will look for telltale heat signatures and feed them to its AI fire-detection models. Currently, fire agencies have to navigate a frustrating trade-off when it comes to satellite imagery: They can get it infrequently at high resolution or faster at low resolution. The goal with FireSat is to detect fires as small as five square meters, small enough and early enough that they might be stamped out before they turn into forest-devouring conflagrations. The first satellite launches in early 2025, with the remaining 50 or so to launch over the coming years. (TechCrunch, Technology Review, Google)

A court in Texas ruled that Samsung’s devices have used wireless charging tech based on infringed patents and ordered the company to pay a fine of over USD192M. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled against Samsung, stating it violated five of Mojo Mobility’s wireless charging patent. (Android Central, Reuters, Yahoo)

T-Mobile has announced its new T-Priority effort, which effectively sets aside a 5G network slice specifically for first responders. The idea is that this dedicated slice will offer faster speeds and the best possible priority on T-Mobile’s robust 5G network. T-Mobile has also announced that the City of New York will be the anchor customer for T-Priority.(Android Authority, T-Mobile, Yahoo)

TCL has announced new strategic partnership with Microsoft for AI. The collaboration will see TCL’s new TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G and TCL 50 Nxtpaper 5G models leveraging Microsoft’s Azure AI. Through Azure AI capabilities, the 50 Pro and 50 models will offer unique functions powered by large language models and automatic speech recognition. For example, the writing assistant can help quickly summarize texts, convert to bullet points, or suggest revisions. Voice notes can now be recorded, transcribed and organized. Users can also easily translate selected texts across many languages. (Neowin, PR Newswire)

Apple is collaborating with India’s Bharti Airtel to offer free access to Apple TV+ and Apple Music for Bharti Airtel’s premium customers. This strategic move aims to expand Apple’s presence in India’s competitive entertainment market, as it competes with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar. Bharti Airtel’s Wynk music app will be discontinued as part of this arrangement. Postpaid Airtel contracts give about 7M subscribers access to the ad-free version of Wynk but only a small fraction use it. (Phone Arena, Reuters, Live Mint, Economic Times)

Samsung Galaxy Ring is getting a hardware update that delivers additional sizes while the wearable also makes its way to a new region. The Galaxy Ring is launched with sizes 5-13. Samsung is apparently planning to launch the Galaxy Ring in size 14 and size 15 options. According to jewellery designer Sylvie Levine, most men’s ring sizes will vary from around eight to 15 and the ring size will always be about a half size larger on the dominant hand that he writes with. (Android Central, 9to5Google, Twitter, Brides)

According to Aldora Intelligence, Microsoft managed to shift 28.3M Xbox Series X and S consoles worldwide as of Jun 2024, which is less than half of Sony’s previously known 61.7M Playstation 5 sold in the same timeframe. Having launched the PS2 a year earlier, Sony was far ahead of Microsoft’s console sales numbers, reaching a total of 155M units over the console’s lifespan compared to the Xbox’s 24.7M units. But Microsoft closed this gap with the Xbox 360, reaching 84.9M units, whereas the PS3 only sold 87.4M. Largely thought to be due to the PS3’s astronomical USD600 price tag. (Android Headlines, Install Base, YouTube, Yahoo Finance)

Jony Ive has confirmed that he’s working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI hardware project. There are not a lot of details on the project. Ive reportedly met Altman through Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and the venture is being funded by Ive and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ company. The Times reports it could raise USD1B in funding by the end of 2024, but makes no mention of Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank CEO rumoured in 2023 to have invested USD1B in the project. Ive and Altman discussed “how generative AI made it possible to create a new computing device because the technology could do more for users than traditional software” due to its ability to handle complicated requests. (The Verge, NY Times, TechCrunch, CN Beta, Gizmodo)

Google CEO Sundar Pichai shares his thoughts on the possibility of AI replacing entry-level programmers. According to the CEO, it is not the most likely scenario. According to Google’s CEO, AI should be viewed more as a collaborative tool instead of something to compete against. Upon being asked by students whether AI would replace entry-level programmers, Pichai started out by stating that “there is a version of this question which can be asked across many disciplines”. He added that “the most likely scenario in all of these things is, it will help people. It will both help existing programmers do their jobs, where most of their energy and time is going into, you know, higher aspects of the task. Rather than you know fixing a bug over and over again or something like that, right”. (Android Headlines, CMU, WCCFtech)

Juniper Research has found that by 2029, the value of global eCommerce transactions will reach USD11.4T; up from USD7T in 2024. This substantial 63% growth will be driven by the adoption of eCommerce across emerging markets. In these regions, APMs (Alternative Payment Methods) will enable consumers in non-card-centric markets to purchase online for the first time. APMs are any cashless and cardless way of transferring funds, such as digital wallets and account-to-account payments. Juniper Research forecasts that by 2029, 360B eCommerce transactions will be made using APMs; constituting 69% of global eCommerce transactions. (Phone Arena, Juniper Research)