Huawei Technologies Co.'s latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, independent analysis revealed, underscoring the Chinese company's ability to sustain production of the controversial chip.
Taiwan-headquartered nFore has captured the attention of European and US automakers, with some visiting the company's site in private. The traction gained as carmakers found a significant portion of nFore's Digital Signal Processing (DSP) solutions when tearing down competitors' Telematics-Box (T-Box) and analyzing their software.
Speculation has recently circulated in the mobile phone market that brand vendors including Apple and Samsung Electronics have revised downward their shipment projections for 2024.
Samsung Electronics is expected to maintain the dual-track application processor (AP) system for its next-generation Galaxy S25 series of smartphones in 2025, entailing the use of both Samsung's proprietary APs and Qualcomm mobile SoCs.
Optical device maker EZconn is seeing strong revenue and gross profit growth in the first quarter of 2024, thanks to the robust demand from broadband infrastructure construction in the US and bandwidth demand boosted by artificial intelligence (AI).
Although the mobile phone industry usually enters off-season in the second quarter, upstream suppliers are currently gearing up to maintain stable operations in the second quarter, benefiting from the completion of inventory clearance in distribution channels. Starting from the third quarter, the mobile phone industry is preparing to welcome simultaneous launches of multiple models by brand vendors and the return of orders.
Airoha Technology, a subsidiary of leading IC-design company MediaTek, announced on March 20 that its dual-frequency, multi-constellation satellite positioning chips, were adopted by Segway's Navimow i series robotic lawnmower. It is the only robotic lawnmower in the industry equipped with AI-assisted mapping functionality.
Just as Qualcomm is poised to unveil an updated Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, leaked benchmark scores for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, a 3nm flagship SoC slated for the second half of 2024, have emerged, surpassing even Apple's forthcoming SoC. This signals a rare instance of Android's mobile SoC outperforming Apple's.
As NAND Flash prices gradually rebound, Samsung Electronics has also begun to increase production, with reports indicating that the utilization rate of its Xi'an factory in China has returned to around 70%, helping alleviate the burden on upstream raw material and component suppliers.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, MediaTek solidified its lead in the global mobile SoC market by shipping over 100 million smartphone SoCs, according to research firm Canalys. This surpasses 78 million units for Apple's iPhone shipments and 69 million for handsets powered by Qualcomm processors. MediaTek's strong performance in the mid-range and low-end segments against Qualcomm's competitive prices will serve as a solid foundation for the Taiwanese SoC specialist to tap into the flagship market in 2024.
Encountering the traditional off-season of the optical industry, Largan Precision announced its February revenue on the 5th, showing a month-on-month decline and a year-on-year increase, similar to its January operating conditions.
On the sidelines of the overarching US-China tech rivalry unfolding across multiple domains, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2024 took place between Feb. 26 - 29, featuring more than 300 Chinese companies. Leading Chinese participants like Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, and ZTE have all flaunted their innovations in AI and telecommunications. Huawei, for example, has famously launched its AI large language model (LLM) - Telecom Foundation Model - designed for telecom carriers. ZTE has also unveiled its Full-Scenario Intelligent Ecosystem 3.0 which combines Large-Scale AI Model, Big Data, and 3D technology to form a unified AI platform for all services.
The Japan-based telecommunication company NTT Docomo and others are promoting the application of Open RAN technology in communication infrastructure, becoming one of the topics at MWC 2024. Due to the trend of excluding Chinese telecom equipment such as Huawei in multiple countries, Open RAN is seen as a means to capture the market vacancy left after such exclusions, as it utilizes devices from multiple vendors instead of relying on products from a single telecom equipment manufacturer.
The development of next-generation communication technologies occurs approximately every 10 years. The international communication standards organization 3GPP has gradually initiated discussions on the standards for 6G. It can be foreseen that the discussion on satellite communication, closely related to 6G, will continue to be lively.
Today marks the grand opening of the MWC Barcelona 2024, where the global communication industry converges to unveil groundbreaking innovations. Departing from its traditional focus on smartphones, this year's MWC embraces a broader spectrum of technological advancements.
AI, 5G, and 6G will be the overarching themes as leading suppliers of the telecom industry convenene in Barcelona, Spain for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2024. MediaTek, Huawei, and Qualcomm, in particular, zoom on Generative AI and pre-6G technologies for their MWC Barcelona 2024 demonstrations.
Amidst MWC Barcelona 2024, the commanding presence of Chinese tech giants like Huawei, ZTE, Honor, and Xiaomi is truly capturing attention. These industry leaders, poised to showcase their latest innovations, underscore the significance of Chinese players in the mobile communications landscape.
