2023-07
06
TINNO recently released its latest tablet device optimization solution, proposed to use "virtual MCU" to break the conventional practice that the tablet and keyboard Pogo-Pin connection must be equipped with a built-in MCU, and applied for a patent for this, creating a precedent for Android system tablet without MCU, while greatly reducing high and unnecessary hardware procurement costs for customers.
▍Market status
Currently, the connection between the tablet and keyboard with Android system on the market is mainly achieved through Pogo-pin and Bluetooth, in order to ensure the connection, tablet manufacturers usually need to install an MCU (micro-control unit) inside the tablet, which is a common practice in the industry. However, the actual situation of the market is that the demand ratio of tablet and keyboard is about 15%, never more than 20%, that is, out of 100 customers who buy tablets, only 15~20 customers will buy the matching keyboard, which means that more than 80% of the MCU investment in tablets is destined to be wasted.
"In order to ensure the normal use of the user, even if the user does not use the keyboard, each tablet must still be equipped with an MCU, and the cost of each piece of hardware is close to more than 1 US dollar. There have been calls on the customer side to reduce the cost of uncertain features. ”Mr. Yu Chengyong, CTO of TINNO IoT, said.
With the weakening of pandemic-driven demand and the downgrade of consumption in the context of high global inflation, the tablet market, which has been growing rapidly in the past few years, has begun to enter a period of structural adjustment. According to data released by market research institute Canalys, global tablet shipments fell 18% year-on-year to 31.7 million units in the first quarter of 2023, falling back to the lowest shipment since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic in the first quarter of 2020. In the context of increasingly fierce competition, major manufacturers are vying to launch more cost-effective products to seize more market share.
▍ New solution launched by TINNO
The solution optimized for the new tablet device launched by TINNO provides more options for the current increasingly competitive tablet market. According to the information released by the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the patent corresponding to the scheme is called "a portable device and communication method for communicating with the keyboard", through which the MCU on the portable device side can be eliminated, the cost and complexity of the portable device can be reduced while the flexibility and scalability of the portable device can also be improved, and unnecessary data transfer and transmission delay can be reduced.
Due to cost considerations, when the market consumption expectation declines, terminal manufacturers will put forward higher requirements for upstream manufacturers, and manufacturers with more innovative consciousness and cost control capabilities will have more opportunities, and TINNO Mobile is one of such manufacturers.
It is reported that a number of important brand manufacturers have conducted business contacts with TINNO, and the TINNO IoT team has successfully obtained a number of project orders with this technology, and the products are expected to be launched to the market in the next two months.
▍Development trend
As a professional team of TINNO Group specializing in tablet peripherals, intelligent education, game peripherals and intelligent positioning products, TINNO IoT's customers include: Tencent, Xiaomi, China Telecom, Lenovo, VIVO, etc. , and is the ODM manufacturer with the largest number of cooperation projects with leading brand flat keyboard, ranking first in China in the design, development and manufacturing of flat keyboards.
At present, there seem to be many keyboard manufacturers in the Chinese market, but in fact, most enterprises (including many well-known old brand keyboard enterprises in the industry) only have R&D technology but no production process technology, or only have production process technology but no electronic communication solution R&D capabilities. Among them, TINNO IoT is one of the few ODM manufacturers integrating self-owned R&D + placement process + assembly, supporting customers from ID design to functional implementation to the liberal customization of private protocols, from CMF to raw materials, to the placement process. Each process link has a mature professional team dedicated to responsible.
Despite the relative downturn in the global consumer electronics industry, China's tablet industry has started relatively steadily, where the market demand is clear, IDC released tracking data shows that in the first quarter of 2023, China's tablet market shipments fell by about 1.1% year-on-year to 6.69 million units. Therefore, some insiders predict that the overall demand for flat tablets may usher in a recovery in the second half of this year and usher in growth in 2024, and shipments will exceed the pre-epidemic level.
When the market is revitalized, manufacturers with more technology will have more market power.
What new opportunities will be nurtured under calm? Let's wait and see.