Recently, various brands have started hosting their product launch conferences offline in China. However, the OnePlus 8T event will have the company not selling any of its tickets to its fans and will only have a limited number of media attending the conference.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, most launches that were traditionally held in venues and at major events, had to shift to online streaming. Although recently, a few brands have started allowing audiences in these conferences. Now, OnePlus is also hosting an offline launch event for its OnePlus 8T series, but it won’t be attended by any fans as the company’s CEO, Pete Lau, said that no tickets will be sold this time around in a post on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website.

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For those unaware, the Chinese brand generally sold tickets to dedicated fans, who even received goodies and other merchandise during these events. Although, the OnePlus has made the decision that only select media and individuals will be allowed in the launch conference in light of the ongoing pandemic. According to the senior official, this is being done for prevention and control. In other words, it is for everyone’s safety.

While only a few people will be allowed to watch the event offline, the live stream that will take place in October is open to everybody. The move from OnePlus is cautionary and understandable in regard to the crisis that has gripped the world. Furthermore, the OnePlus 8T will be the company’s latest flagship and the anticipation for its launch is already here. So stay tuned for more.

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Samsung has been hard at work to catch up to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC. The South Korean tech giant has taken numerous steps to boost production, but it seems like the company is still struggling to improve yields of 5nm chips.

At the moment, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is mass producing 5nm chips for various companies, including Apple with its A14 chips. On the other hand, Samsung Foundry is reportedly facing issues in a similar department with low yields of its 5nm EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) process. The company had first announced this processes’ development back in 2019, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it seems the company is still struggling to boost yields.

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According to a report from DigiTimes, the company had recently acquired orders from Qualcomm for the mass production of its upcoming flagship Snapdragon 875G and Snapdragon 735G chips. However, the recent difficulties being faced by the company might end up affecting the launch of the upcoming Qualcomm chips which will be found in smartphones in 2021.

Notably, Samsung had previously announced that it would be starting mass production of 5nm chips by the end of Q2 2020. Although, it is still unknown if the company managed to begin mass production as of yet. While several rumors and reports had pointed at the Galaxy Note 20 series featuring the first 5nm chips (Exynos 992), the recent news might be behind its supposed cancellation.

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The 2019-nCoV aka Chinese coronavirus outbreak has severely affected the business of Chinese companies as well as those abroad. 361 people have died so far and over 17,000 people have been infected in China. While the Chinese government is actively trying to combat the spread of the virus in the country, stores, restaurants, and other businesses are either closed or operating in limited capacity over the past few days. Unsurprisingly this will affect the smartphone shipments in the first couple of quarters of 2020. And according to a recent report from Strategy Analytics, the Chinese smartphone shipments in Q1 2020 could decline by a staggering 30%.

The Strategy Analytics report points out that the coronavirus will slow down the GDP growth and consumer spending in China. This, in turn, will affect the smartphone market in the country in the first half of 2020. The report highlights that global smartphone shipments will likely drop by 2% due to the coronavirus epidemic. The Chinese smartphone shipments in 2020 are expected to drop by 5%. However, the biggest impact will be in the first quarter where the shipments are expected to drop by 30%.

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The report further notes that China manufactures nearly 70% of the world’s smartphones. Therefore, delay in the factory operations due to the extended New Year holidays and travel restrictions and quarantine will adversely affect the global supply and manufacturing. We are already seeing the first signs of a supply shortage due to this epidemic – Asus ROG 2 is in short supply in India right now.

The report further adds that the impact of coronavirus on smartphone shipments in China could be worse if it’s not controlled in the next couple of months.

The coronavirus epidemic in China has also affected smartphone launch events. We still haven’t heard anything about the Xiaomi Mi 10 launch, which was earlier expected before February 11 in China. In fact, new reports claim that the Mi 10 flagship and the new Black Shark gaming smartphone could get an online release in the country. This makes sense given how the Chinese government is discouraging companies from organizing events during this period. Even Huawei postponed its developer conference in China last week from February 11 to March 27. Accessories for the Galaxy S20 lineup are also expected to be delayed.

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(Source, Via)

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