Gadgets
Apple Produced the Most Smartphones in Q4 2020: TrendForce
Apple ranked first in terms of smartphone production volume for the fourth quarter of 2020, the latest analysis by a market research firm TrendForce shows. Overall, the global smartphone production is estimated to grow 25 percent year-on-year (YoY) in the first quarter of 2021 but decline six percent compared to the previous quarter (Q4 2020). The analysis states Apple produced 77.6 million iPhone units in Q4 2020 and overtook Samsung that produced the most smartphones in Q3 2020. However, Samsung is expected to take back the crown in Q1 2021 and stay on top for the entire year.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, global sales for high-end smartphone models declined in 2020 but Apple still managed to capture the largest market share in terms of production volume. Compared to Q3 2020, the analysis by TrendForce shows Apple produced 77.6 million units of iPhones in Q4 2020, marking an 85 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase. This put the Cupertino-based company in the lead ahead of Samsung that could manage 67 million units in the last quarter of 2020. This marked a 14 percent decline compared to Q3 2020.
TrendForce states that the new iPhone 12 series that accounted for about 90 percent of the iPhone production in Q4 2020 gave stiff competition to Samsung, causing it to lose its lead. Apple led Q4 2020 with 21.3 percent market share when it comes to total production volume, Samsung captured 18.4 percent, Oppo had 13.7 percent, Xiaomi had 12.9 percent, Huawei had 9.5 percent, and Vivo came in last with 8.7 percent. Interestingly, with its quarterly production volume of 34.5 million smartphone units in Q4 2020, Huawei managed to diminish the impact of sanctions put in place by the Department of Commerce. Though, its production for Q4 2020 was down 21 percent compared to Q3 2020.
The production numbers and high sales of the iPhone 12 models indicate there was a growth in the market and the TrendForce production estimates give an idea of the demand, and proportionally the sales of the devices.
Coming to estimates for the first quarter of 2021, the firm states smartphone production is expected to reach 342 million units which would be a 25 percent YoY increase. Compared to Q3 2020, it would be a drop of six percent that is quite low compared to the trend of 20 percent decline coming to Q1 from Q4 of a previous year. Estimates show that Apple may produce 54 million iPhone units in Q1 2021 out of which 80 percent would be iPhone 12 models.
Samsung, on the other hand, is expected to stay on top for 2021 and will likely produce around 62 million units in the first quarter of this year. Overall, for 2021, TrendForce estimates the total smartphone production volume to reach 1.36 billion units, seeing a nine percent YoY increase.
Gadgets
Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
Gadgets
BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Gadgets
Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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