Preconditions for the destruction of Xiaomi, MediaTek will knock out Qualcomm, a new Google idea and a real PDA in 2018.
Samsung and Apple may destroy Xiaomi by 2021
Usually, when talking about the success of a company, they mention the profit made or the number of devices sold. But there is also a downside to the 'influence' coin, which is how much a company spends on purchasing and, indirectly, developing new chips. Chip manufacturers, all these huge semiconductor factories, cannot sell the same mobile processor every year, and the speed of new electronics development is directly dependent on the competition between end-device manufacturers. There is competition – there is progress, there is no competition – there is no progress. In this eternal race, only the one who spends the most on the development of the component base can win. It is all the more curious to look at the graph, which is built in accordance with the spending on the purchase of chips by an electronic “ big '' in 2017:
The leaders, Apple and Samsung, account for 81.8 billion of the 2017 total spending of $ 419.720 billion. This is 20% more than in 2016. Eight of the top ten companies in 2016 remained in the top 10 in 2017, with the top five chip buyers retaining their positions. LG returned to the top ten and was joined by newcomer Western Digital, which increased its semiconductor spending by $ 1.7 billion in 2017. BBK Electronics moved up from rank seven to six, doubling its semiconductor spending.
If you look closely at these dry numbers and data from past years, you can deduce a certain trend in the development of the market. Semiconductor technology spending for the top 10 leading OEMs has grown significantly, reaching 40% of the total semiconductor market in 2017, up from 31% 10 years ago. If this trend continues (as predicted by Gartner), the top 10 OEMs will receive more than 45% of total global semiconductor spending by 2021.
Even though increased prices for memory (DRAM and NAND) had a big impact on companies' spending in 2017, the picture is disappointing. Namely, the growing gap between leaders and those who catch up. And in the end, the technological lag of B-brands for generations. If this happens, then the era Xiaomi and similar companies will end, which simply will not get modern productive chips and high-quality components.
I ask you not to take this forecast too seriously, it does not claim to be the ultimate truth. But we shouldn't ignore the bad tendency either.
MediaTek VS Qualcomm, crushing mawashi geri by router
As it was mentioned several times in 'Birches', ARM architecture is the most versatile to date. Excellent scalability, ease of development and the ability to use kernels of different generations and purposes in one device allow you to make almost any device 'smart'. The first wave of 'non-smartphone' ARM chips swept the market for routers and other networking devices, the second wave called 'Internet of Things' (IoT) has not yet arrived, but is already visible on the horizon. At the same time, all modern routers are built on OEM-platforms from Qualcomm or MediaTek, Broadcom and lesser known. As in any market, there are leaders and outsiders on this battlefield, and if it has somewhat lost ground in mobile technology MediaTek, then among network devices it feels like a king, occupying more than 50% of the market.
It would be interesting to see what the ARM chip is for a router. The current locomotive MediaTek is the MT7622 chip. The SoC includes a cluster of two Cortex A53 cores operating at a frequency of 1.36 GHz, and a universal MT7615 modem with a full set of communications. Among the advantages are also USB3.0 Host and hardware processing for encryption of streams. From this, we can assume that this chip is a cut from a mobile SoQ 67xx, for example, MT6737. The chip is installed in Wi-Fi routers of production Asus and D-Link of the senior and middle price segments.
An anonymous partner told about overcoming the 50% milestone. At the same time, the information is posted on the blog MediaTek, and the D-Link inscriptions are perfectly visible in the photo above. Of course, this material is designed to attract new clients to the company. In the meantime, we can assume that, as it was in the smartphone market just a few years ago, the company MediaTek broke into the router market and squeezed out the former leaders in the person of Qualcomm and Broadcom. Time will tell whether the company MediaTek will withstand the retaliatory strike of the opponents who have come to their senses.
Friends, do you pay attention to the 'stuffing' of Wi-Fi routers when it comes time to change them? Or are you focusing on technical specifications and customer reviews?
Google is preparing a new service that could knock local newspapers out of the saddle
Google is testing and running in the bowels of Google as part of the early access of a new service – Google Bulletin. The newsletter allows you to post photos and videos, reports from the scene, information from individuals and companies, leaflets from government organizations. Access to these materials will be strictly tied to the terrain in which the carrier of the device with Google on board is located. For example, if you live in Murmansk, then you will not be asked to watch the tape of a resident of Moscow.
The service is currently being tested in Nashville and Oakland (California) and on its way met with a misunderstanding of local media, which suspected Google of trying to take over their information field. In its response (according to rumors leaked to various media outlets), Google recommended that the media work with the service, rewarding volunteers for the hot material sent to them through Bulletin. What niche does this service want to occupy? Local news is abundant on the Internet, and most of all on social media. But we must remember that when we read a site called 'Kryzhoplya News', we cannot be sure at all that they are reliable or that the photographs correspond to the indicated location. Again, looking for some specific information about an event, for example, about the start time of the city cleanup, we have to look through hundreds of messages. Google Bulletin will bring order to this chaos and make it easier to find information. In the meantime, testing is in progress, we can admire the project page in the browser using this link.
What do you think, friends? Do we need such a service, or is the good old free newspaper in the mailbox more reliable?
Undeservedly forgotten announcement
Many different devices were presented at CES-2018, but many of them will not be officially delivered to our country. However, in the age of mail-order trade, the main selection criterion should be the originality of the device, the interest of a potential buyer in it. Or interest in design features, as in the case of the Gemini PDA minicomputer. Yes, friends, you heard right, someone in the modern world is still releasing a PDA.
The PDA is produced by the British company Planet Computers Ltd in two versions, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 4G. In technical terms, we have a typical smartphone on Android, which for some reason was placed in a body similar to the unforgettable Sony Vaio P.
We could have stopped at this, if not for one 'but' – two operating systems are installed in the PDA, and the second is not at all Windows, which first comes to mind, but a full-fledged one Linux. Android and Linux is the most unusual combination on the market. The technical characteristics of the device do not make you flinch with admiration, but they are quite suitable for the description of 'strong average':
To date, the new product can be ordered only through the INDEGOGO service at a price of 399 USD for the Wi-Fi + 4G version. The device is extremely niche, and the more interesting it is to know your opinion, to whom it suits best. Maybe a programmer? Or a journalist? What do you think?
