07-13: The United States said that it has signed an agreement with ZTE Corp that paves the way for ZTE to resume operations; etc.
Chipsets
Intel has acquired eASIC, a designer of programmable chips that can be customized at the time of production. Santa Clara, California-based eASIC makes structured ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits. (VentureBeat, TechCrunch, AnandTech, Sohu, 163)
Huawei has confirmed that Kirin 710 is using 12nm process, which is manufactured by TSMC. Kirin 710’s CPU performance has increased 2 times, and its GPU performance has increased 2.26 times. (CN Beta, IT Home, GSM Arena, First Post)
United Microelectronics (UMC) will be expanding production capacity in 2019, and is looking to grow its presence in the automotive electronics sector and also the China market. (Digitimes, press, UDN, Money DJ, UDN, UDN)
Touch Display
LG Display (LGD) has reportedly signed a deal with Apple under which it will start shipping both LCD and OLED panels to the US smartphone vendor for the production of its new iPhone in 2H18, according to Digitimes. LGD is expected to ship 3M~4M OLED panels as well as 20M LCD smartphone panels to Apple in 2018. (CN Beta, Digitimes, press, Mac Rumors)
Camera
Largan Precision has fully utilized production capacity, but is striving to hike the yield rates, which are currently not satisfactory, company CEO Lin En-ping said. Largan is developing triple-lens modules consisting of one or more lenses with resolution of 20MP or above, Lin said. Many smartphones equipped with triple-lens cameras are expected to launch in 2019, Lin noted, adding Largan is developing lens modules consisting of seven plastic lens pieces (7P) and may begin production them in 2019. (Digitimes, press, Laoyaoba, 52RD, CNYES)
Battery
Apple has announced a new investment fund in China to connect suppliers with renewable energy sources. As part of Apple’s commitment to address climate change and increase the use of renewable energy within its supply chain, 10 initial suppliers and Apple will jointly invest nearly USD300M over the next 4 years into the China Clean Energy Fund. (Mac Rumors, Apple, Sina, CN Beta)
Connectivity
Juniper has found that operator-billed mobile voice revenues will fall from USD354B in 2018 to USD197B by 2023, an average annual decline of 10%. However, Juniper has identified a series of new opportunities which collectively would enable operators to sustain, or increase, service revenues. (Android Headlines, Juniper Research, Yahoo)
Phone
Huawei has sold over 3M units of Honor 10 globally since it is launched in May 2018, with a 150% YoY growth. (GSM Arena, Phone Arena, XDA Developers, My Drivers)
The United States said that it has signed an agreement with ZTE Corp that paves the way for ZTE to resume operations after a nearly three-month ban on doing business with American suppliers. The ban on ZTE will be removed once the company deposits USD400M in an escrow account. (GSM Arena, Reuters, SCMP, Sohu, VOA Chinese, Reuters)
According to security company Blancco, Samsung is ranked top 1 failures among Android phones during 1Q18, with the highest failure rate 27.4%. Xiaomi follows with 14.2$ failure rate. (GizChina, Blancco, report, HSW)
OPPO has just registered 40 new smartphone models in Europe—A11, A13, A15, A17, A19, A21, AX5, AX7, AX9, AX11, AX13, AX15, AX17, AX19, FX7, FX9, FX11, FX13, FX15, FX17, R23, R25, R27, R29, R31, R33, RX17, RX19, RX21, RX23, RX25, RX27, RX29, RX31, UX1, UX3, UX5, UX7, UX9, and the UX11. (Android Headlines, TechRadar, LetsGoDigital)
Energizer feature phones Energy E10+ and E11 are announced, featuring 1.8” 128×160 QQVGA, MediaTek MT6261D, VGA+VGA, 4MB+4MB, dual-SIM: E10+ – 1000mAh. E11 – 1800mAh. (Gizmo China, GizChina)
Infinix Hot 6 Pro is announced in India – 5.99” 1440×720 HD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, rear dual 13MP – 2MP + front 5MP, 3GB+32GB, Android 8.0, 4000mAh, INR7,999. (Gizmo China, Economic Times)
PCs / Tablets
According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.1M units in 2Q18, a 1.4% increase from 2Q17. This is the first quarter of year-over-year global PC shipment growth since 1Q12. With the completion of Lenovo’s joint venture with Fujitsu, 3 out of 4 PCs were shipped by the top 5 PC vendors in 2Q18. (Laoyaoba, Apple Insider, Gartner, press)
Augmented / Virtual Reality
According to Tipatat Chennavasin, co-founder and general partner at The VR Fund, with more than USD1B so far 2018, global investment in VR and AR is still very strong. While AR is getting more attention lately, the number of deals is fairly evenly split between VR and AR. (CN Beta, VR Focus)
Octi has raises USD7.5M to create augmented reality (AR) that understands human movement. Octi has developed a proprietary skeleton mapping and gesture detection technology using a smartphone camera to recognise the human body without additional sensors and automatically overlays contextual 3D effects. (TechCrunch, VR Focus, 7Tin)
Automotive
Samsung Semiconductor fabricates all sorts of silicon products like printed circuit boards and processors, and it turns out that the wafers those products are made from get carried around the factories by automated vehicles. These autonomously driven pods are officially called Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP). (Android Headlines, Samsung)
In late Mar 2018, Waymo announced that it would receive a number of Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs in anticipation of a future self-driving ride-hailing service. Now, those I-Paces are starting to roll in. (VentureBeat, TechCrunch, CNET, Elektrek, Sohu)
Artificial Intelligence
Paris-based Meero has announced it has raised USD45M in venture capital, which the imaging company will use to fuel its international expansion. Meero uses artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up and automate image editing, particularly for corporate customers who may rely on large volumes of photos to display inventory. (VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Lieyun, Admin5)