technology

Huawei Mobile Teases An AI-Related Announcement At IFA 2017

Huawei Mobile recently teased an announcement related to its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts that will reportedly be made at this year’s iteration of IFA Berlin that’s scheduled to start on September 1. The Chinese original equipment manufacturer (OEM) took to Twitter last week to share an image that can be seen above, trying to prompt a general discussion on AI and encouraging users to share their own views and experiences related to this emerging technology by asking them to explain what AI means to them. The image itself states that AI is “more than just a voice assistant,” indicating that the company’s possible IFA Berlin announcement may not be related to digital companions and the tech giant won’t introduce a competitor to the likes of the Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.

Another possibility is that Huawei is, in fact, working on an AI service but intends to market it as more than just a limited assistant capable of scheduling appointments, setting alarms, and accomplishing other mundane tasks. If the firm is working on such a solution, it may announce it alongside a new device and detail plans to distribute it to its previously released offerings in the coming months. While the Shenzhen, China-based consumer electronics manufacturer is currently preparing for the launch of the high-end Mate 10 that it already started teasing in recent weeks, it’s unlikely that the flagship will be revealed at the latest iteration of IFA seeing how its predecessor was only officially announced last November.

The tech giant published its consolidated financial results for the first half of the year last week, indicating that its business is still growing, largely thanks to its consumer electronics unit. Many industry analysts expect the company to maintain its promising performance in the coming years, though it’s still unclear how AI will fit into Huawei’s overall business strategy. This particular market segment is currently dominated by Google in the mobile space and Amazon in the overall Internet of Things (IoT) sector and as it still isn’t experiencing surging adoption rates, it remains to be seen whether there’s enough room in the industry for another major actor.

What does AI mean to you? pic.twitter.com/DtU3VEUXlI

— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) July 28, 2017

Huawei: We’ll Destroy the iPhone 8

Huawei is aiming for the stars with its new smartphones and judging from how fast it became the world’s third biggest phone manufacturer, Samsung and Apple have every reason to always keep an eye on what their Chinese rivals are doing.

Cupertino, in particular, has recently been put in Huawei’s cross-hair, as the company wants its future Mate 10 to absolutely destroy the iPhone 8, despite all the huge upgrades that Apple is said to be planning on its flagship device.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Huawei's CEO Richard Yu explained that his company is currently finalizing the new Mate 10 and the features it’ll bring will make everyone forget about the iPhone 8.

“We will have an even more powerful product. The Mate 10, which has much longer battery life with a full-screen display, quicker changing speed, better-photographing capability and many other features that will help us compete with Apple,” he said.

Growth slowing down

Though it’s still in the rumor stage, the Huawei Mate 10 is expected to come with a 6-inch display and be powered by the company’s Kyrin 970 chip. The device could also feature a dual-camera system, as well as bezel-less approach similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and presumably to iPhone 8.

Dominating the mobile phone business and surpassing Apple and Samsung is a target that Huawei announced in 2016 and which appears to be the priority for the Chinese firm. The company expects to ship between 140 million and 150 million units this year, up from 139 million units last year.

While the company’s growth more or less slowed down this year, Huawei expects the upcoming Mate 10 to boost sales to a level that it would allow the firm to overtake Apple. In the first half of the year, Huawei posted a 15 percent growth in revenue to $42 billion, down from 30 percent growth in 2016.

The Huawei Mate 10 should arrive in the fall as well, with the company’s CEO pointing out that it could land at about the same time as the iPhone 8.

TSMC in full production mode on chipsets slated for iPhone 8, Huawei Mate 10

The fall is not too fall away and the parts have to start coming together if there’s any chance for those flagship smartphones to ship in time. For Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, it means cranking out designs from Apple and Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon.

A report this week from Taiwan-based TechNews claims that an earlier problem that had limited production yields for 10nm fabrications — highly expected to feature in the Kirin 970 on the Huawei Mate 10 and the Apple A11 on the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus as well as the fancier iPhone 8 — is all cleared up. While TSMC’s foundries have been putting out product for the past several months, it’s about this time that the company will push its machines to full power. The new iPad Pro models did feature a 10nm-based A10X chipset, but those were just a test for the system.

Malaysian trading firm CIMB is forecasting peak production rates this quarter anywhere from 165,000 to 180,000 wafers for this quarter. Barron‘s reports that TSMC may also take over Apple A9 chip production from Samsung as the iPhone 6s remains a stronger option in the more affordable device range for developing markets.