China's tech industry is a rapidly evolve, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and shaping the global technological landscape. With this article, EDUTO delve into the key highlights that have transformed China's tech scene in the first half of 2024.

The first humanoid robot to climb the Great Wall

Chinese company Robot Era introduced XBot-L, which is 1.65 meters tall and claims to be the first humanoid robot to climb the Great Wall.

According to NewAtlas , most robots are currently still tested in laboratories, in factories or closed environments, rather than wandering along tourist paths like XBot-L.

Although not as fast as the Unitree H1 , or as flexible as the new generation Atlas from Boston Dynamics, the XBot-L demonstrates stable movement and handles well when the road surface is occasionally broken, the surface is uneven and unpredictable. . It also waved, punched in the dark, and performed a number of other movements. This is thanks to advanced reinforcement learning (RL) technology, in which the system self-learns and makes decisions or actions based on feedback signals from the environment.

Yue Xi, co-founder of Robot Era, said: "The RL algorithm enhances the robot's perception and decision-making ability when facing unfamiliar terrain. Therefore, it can recognize conditions complex paths and adjust posture in a timely manner. Compared to 'blind walking', our robot moves and balances better on complex surfaces."

However, in the video, viewers can see some tape around the middle part of the robot. NewAtlas predicts that the robot may have stumbled on the way up, although it is not certain.

Robot Era is a robotics company backed by the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information Science - Tsinghua University. Last month, the company also introduced XHand - a dexterous hand with 12 degrees of freedom for robots to perform various object-grabbing tasks.

News: Unlock Business Potential with AI Services from EDUTO Software Outsourcing Company

Huawei surpasses Samsung in folding screen phones

Bringing 5G connectivity to phones helps Huawei grow strongly, becoming the best-selling company in folding screen smartphones in the first quarter of 2024.

The folding smartphone market report published by research firm Counterpoint Research shows that Huawei achieved a market share of 35% in the last quarter, growing 257% over the same period last year.

This result helps the Chinese phone company become the market leader after a long time of Samsung dominating the market. Some other smartphone companies also witnessed strong growth rates such as Honor (up 460%), Motorola (1,473%). Meanwhile, Samsung used to have a market share of 58% in the first quarter of 2023, but currently has 23%.

According to Counterpoint researchers, one of the reasons for Huawei's folding phone growth is the addition of 5G and focus on the domestic market. The Mate X5 model with new generation network connectivity, launched last September, has continuously become the best-selling folding phone in China, while Samsung is not popular here.

"Despite facing challenges in securing the same source for its self-developed 5G SoC, Huawei will prioritize folding screen products because of their high price positioning," the research firm assessed. Recently, Huawei also launched another compact 5G model, Pocket 2, promising to continue to help the company increase sales in the near future.

In markets outside of China, Samsung also faces strong competition from rivals. Honor's Magic V2 model became the best-selling phone in Western Europe, while the Motorola Razr 40 also had top sales in North America, according to Counterpoint.

Research also shows that "book" folding screen designs like the Mate X5 or Z Fold5 are more popular, with a market share of 55% of the entire market. While the "clamshell" design of the Z Flip, which is Samsung's strength thanks to its accessible price, is now facing strong competition from many Chinese brands such as Huawei, Honor, OnePlus and Vivo, causing Samsung's market share to decrease. .

According to analysts, the "clamshell" folding screen phone segment is still highly appreciated for its development potential, and is expected to have competition from a series of phone companies in the near future, from Z Flip6 to other smartphones. Honor and Xiaomi models.

News: Latest Technology News in US in the first half of 6/2024

An SK Hynix employee “stealed technology for Huawei”

A Chinese person working for South Korean chip company SK Hynix is ​​accused of stealing semiconductor technology and transferring it to Huawei.

On May 28, Korean prosecutors said that a female SK Hynix employee (identity not disclosed), aged 30, collected more than 3,000 A4 pages containing peripheral semiconductor technology documents, then sent them to her. for a Chinese company. The company was later identified as Huawei. This person was arrested at the airport in April when entering Korea.

SK Hynix's regulations do not allow the use of USB storage devices at work, and monitor all printing orders, but this female employee is said to still print documents, put them in her bag and take them back to China.

Kyunggi Nambu Provincial Police said this person violated the Act on Prevention of Disclosure and Protection of Industrial Technology. Female employee has worked at SK Hynix since 2013, in the department responsible for analyzing defects in semiconductor designs. From 2020 to 2022, this person participates in consulting for corporate clients in China.

This person denied the accusations against him. Meanwhile, SK Hynix said it is cooperating with the investigation. According to Korea Times , in Korea, violating the Act to Prevent Disclosure and Protect Industrial Technology is one of the serious crimes and can face up to 18 years in prison if convicted by a court.

SK Hynix was founded in 1983 in Incheon, is the second largest memory chip manufacturer after Samsung and the world's sixth largest semiconductor company. The company specializes in providing DRAM and Flash memory products for phones, computers and many other devices.

Samsung, SK Hynix and other Korean chip manufacturing companies continuously have to deal with the problem of technology leakage to China, which can cause economic losses of up to trillions of won, despite efforts prevention by increasing security checks for employees. Last month, Samsung also faced a similar case when an employee was accused of stealing technology related to atomic layer deposition (ALD) devices used to produce DRAM and shipping it to China.

According to the Korean National Police Agency, the number of cases related to technology theft brought to trial from February to October 2023 is 21 cases, an increase of 75% compared to the previous year. This is the highest number since 2013.