Around the web
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Samsung's decision to sell its printing business to HP for over $1 billion showed that the company is serious in its efforts to become a leaner organization. A new report out of South Korea claims that Samsung now wants to sell its PC business and that it's talking to Chinese giant Lenovo about a potential deal.
SamMobile
Qualcomm's X12 is capable of dealing with more channels of data simultaneously than its Intel rival, according to a report by Milan Milanovic, an analyst at Cellular Insights, which tests phones and networks. Apple didn't enable this feature "to level the playing field between Qualcomm and Intel," Milanovic wrote.
Bloomberg
German chipmaker Infineon raised its medium-term profitability target on Wednesday, banking on strong growth in its automotive business as carmakers invest heavily on electric and self-driving vehicles.
Reuters
Japan Display Inc is in advanced talks to receive a bailout amount of about 75 billion yen ($704.49 million) from Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ), a government-backed fund and the display maker's largest shareholder, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Reuters
Apple plans to ship at least one new iPhone with an OLED screen next year, the 10th anniversary of the smartphone's debut, people with knowledge of the matter said. A pair of other new iPhone models will likely feature screens that use older LCD technology, partly because there won't be enough OLED displays to satisfy anticipated demand, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Bloomberg
With Apple expected to launch three new iPhone models next year, a new report suggests the company could slash prices on the 4.7- and 5.5-inch models with legacy LCD technology, allowing them to appeal to a new segment of consumers.
Apple Insider
China has become the first country to receive more than 1m patent applications in a single year - a record the World Intellectual Property Organisation said reflected "extraordinary" levels of innovation in the world's most populous nation.
The Financial Times
Apple is cutting orders for assembly of iPhone for the March quarter, which raises some risk to sales outlook, Rosenblatt Securities's Jin Zhang said.
Barron's
South Korean authorities have raided the offices of Samsung and the national pension fund as part of a corruption investigation linked to the president.
BBC News
Apple's iPhone secured 103.6% of the smartphone industry's profits during the third quarter, BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long said in a research note on Thursday. That's the highest share of profits Apple has nabbed in recent memory and easily topped its approximately 70% share of profits in the second quarter. In the third quarter of 2015, Apple's iPhone profit share hovered above 90%.
Fortune
Some insiders of the company are suggesting to reorganize the System LSI division in order to systematically grow the system semiconductor business. They are planning to separate the design and manufacturing sectors in the division and separate or spin off to fabless and foundry business divisions.
BusinessKorea
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iwaki City, in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, early Tuesday morning.
Wall Street Journal
Analog chipmaker Macom Technology Solutions Holdings said on Monday it would buy fellow chipmaker Applied Micro Circuits for about $770 million to expand its data center connectivity business.
Reuters
For the second time in a little more than a year, the secretive US agency that vets global deals on national-security grounds is objecting to a Chinese takeover of a European company.
Wall Street Journal
Intel is denying that the company is stepping back from wearables, though has not directly commented on the layoff news.
TechCrunch
Applied Materials, the biggest maker of machinery used to produce chips and displays, predicted a jump in sales as customers spend on equipment needed to modernize production. The stock fell on concern that orders may have peaked.
Bloomberg
Nikkei Electronics Asia
According to the Korea International Trade Association, South Korea recorded a trade surplus of US$29.8 billion in its trade with China for the first 10 months of this year. The amount fell 24% from a year ago whereas South Korea's total exports showed a negative growth of 12% during the same period. The trade surplus is estimated to reach US$35.7 billion at the end of this year. For reference, South Korea posted its all-time high trade surplus with respect to China, US$62.8 billion, in 2013.
BusinessKorea
New York Times
Nikon plans to eliminate about 1,000 jobs in Japan, or 10% of its domestic workforce, as the company shifts resources away from once core businesses to medical devices and other growth areas.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
RCS is a messaging standard set by GSMA that allows the sending of texts, group chat, and the sharing of large multimedia files. Unlike other messaging apps, it allows users to communicate on any network by telcos who have RCS infrastructure.
ZDNet
IBM researchers have finally unlocked the secret to creating microchips using carbon nanotubes. The innovation could lead us to some of the most powerful microchips ever created paving the way for injectable microchips and bendy computers.
Daily Mail
Google is to open a new headquarters building in London which could see 3,000 new jobs created by 2020.
BBC News
According to the latest rumor from its home country of South Korea, Samsung is thinking about making the Galaxy S8 come with a pressure-sensitive display. If you're wondering what that means, just think Apple's 3D Touch on iPhones - that's basically it. The technology detects how hard you press on the screen, and this can be used by software to enable different functionality depending on the pressure level applied. The rumor is reportedly coming from multiple industry sources, as well as a senior executive at Samsung's component division.
Gsmarena
Qualcomm US$39 billion deal to buy NXP Semiconductors helped push US announced deal volume this month to US$248.9 billion, according to data provider Dealogic.
Wall Street Journal
Europe's largest economy grew by 0.2% between July and September, half the 0.4% rate seen in the previous three months.
BBC News
Siemens' planned acquisition of automation and industrial software provider Mentor Graphics is the German giant's latest play to stay competitive in the race to digitize heavy industry.
Wall Street Journal
Advances in semiconductor technology will be on display at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Samsung and TSMC will describe 7nm SRAMs, Mediatek will show a 10nm SoC and STMicroelectronics will unveil a neural network accelerator made in a fully depleted silicon-on-insulator process.
EE Times
Dolby has dragged Vivo and Oppo to court for illegally selling phones with Dolby technology. The court has ordered the two companies to deposit Rs 32 per infringing device manufactured, imported and sold in escrow while royalty terms are discussed.
Firstpost
Siemens, Europe's biggest industrial group, is nearing a deal to buy Mentor Graphics, which makes software for designing semiconductors, for $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion in cash, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters
Will fingerprint swiping and gestures be the next big thing? We don't know for sure. But Google took a chance with it on the Google Pixel smartphones. And now it seems like Samsung will be having this technology in their phones soon, probably on the Samsung Galaxy S8 if all things go right.
Android Community
As the scale of Trump's success became clear, Asian stocks fell sharply, the dollar weakened and gold prices rallied as investors raced for cover amid anxiety about his economic policies.
Guardian
An investment firm has delved deeply into Apple's most recent Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing, and sees purchase orders extending over one year in duration which suggests to them that Apple is in the middle of a big OLED buy from Samsung -the main supplier of the technology.
Apple Insider
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