Apple may ditch Audience noise suppression tech in next-gen iPhone
In a note released on Thursday, Audience said Apple is "unlikely" to enable its noise suppression IP in the upcoming iPhone, causing shares of the audio technology company to tumble over 50 percent in after-market trading.
Apple has employed Audience's processor in previous iterations of its popular handset, including the iPhone 4, which featured a dedicated separate noise suppression processor.
Most recently, the A5 SoC used in the iPhone 4S integrated Audience's second-generation earSmart voice and audio processor IP to optimize the voice recognition capabilities of Apple's Siri virtual assistant.
Audience developed next-generation IP and licensed it to Apple in March, but the agreement does not require the iPhone maker and its subsidiaries to use the patents if it so chooses.
Standalone Audience chip from the iPhone 4. | Source: iFixIt
From the release:
"While we are disappointed by this development, we are confident in the diversification of our business and see sustainable growth in 2012 and beyond," said Audience President and CEO Peter Santos. "As such we are raising guidance for the third quarter of 2012. Looking ahead, we believe our expansion into adjacent markets such as Smart TVs, automotive, and notebooks, will continue to bring growth in 2013 and beyond."
It is unclear what audio processing technology Apple has chosen over Audience's solution.
Apple has employed Audience's processor in previous iterations of its popular handset, including the iPhone 4, which featured a dedicated separate noise suppression processor.
Most recently, the A5 SoC used in the iPhone 4S integrated Audience's second-generation earSmart voice and audio processor IP to optimize the voice recognition capabilities of Apple's Siri virtual assistant.
Audience developed next-generation IP and licensed it to Apple in March, but the agreement does not require the iPhone maker and its subsidiaries to use the patents if it so chooses.
Standalone Audience chip from the iPhone 4. | Source: iFixIt
From the release:
Because Apple is Audience's top customer, the choice not to use the patents will affect the company's bottom line as no royalties will be paid out.Audience now believes that it is unlikely that the OEM will enable Audience's processor IP in its next generation mobile phone. Audience is not aware of any intended changes by this OEM to its use of Audience's processors or processor IP in prior generations of the OEM's mobile phones.
"While we are disappointed by this development, we are confident in the diversification of our business and see sustainable growth in 2012 and beyond," said Audience President and CEO Peter Santos. "As such we are raising guidance for the third quarter of 2012. Looking ahead, we believe our expansion into adjacent markets such as Smart TVs, automotive, and notebooks, will continue to bring growth in 2013 and beyond."
It is unclear what audio processing technology Apple has chosen over Audience's solution.
Comments
Interesting. My neighbor works for a well known American fabless chip company. He told me some time ago that the next generation iPhone would use noise cancellation tech from his company. Perhaps it is now finally happening.
At first, I read it as Apple shares tumbled 50% and I was like WTF?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by WelshDog
Interesting. My neighbor works for a well known American fabless chip company. He told me some time ago that the next generation iPhone would use noise cancellation tech from his company. Perhaps it is now finally happening.
what company?
Quote:
Originally Posted by WelshDog
Interesting. My neighbor works for a well known American fabless chip company. He told me some time ago that the next generation iPhone would use noise cancellation tech from his company. Perhaps it is now finally happening.
Inquiring minds want to know -- but can wait if it violates a confidence with your neighbor. /s
Edit: I see bighype had a similar thought first or same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bighype
what company?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot
Inquiring minds want to know -- but can wait if it violates a confidence with your neighbor. /s
Edit: I see bighype had a similar thought first or same time.
Yeah I shouldn't say. He told me and I don't think he realized that was probably violating some kind of confidentiality rules/SEC guidelines. He's not from the US and is an engineer. Don't think he pays much attention to stocks and things. I have chosen not to take advantage of the information.
I'll share with you after the first teardown.
I find it comical how Audience Technology's stock took a hit because Apple failed to make use of the IP they are licensing from them since earlier this year. Apple's stock should take the hit for failing to add a feature to their product that has been thus far already outed by the tech community. Unless Tim is going to unveil an iPhone we have never seen then his doubling down on secrecy is looking really bad.
I am more interested in iOS 6 than the new iPhone. Yes the iPhone will be awesome in some ways. But the iOS will have some really nice upgrades that I am itching to use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerk36
I am more interested in iOS 6 than the new iPhone. Yes the iPhone will be awesome in some ways. But the iOS will have some really nice upgrades that I am itching to use.
Holy cow. I just saw that iOS 6 is not compatible with iPad 1st gen. How sad.
Apple probably found a way to create it's own version of noise cancelling technology, and patent it on terms so general that they'll soon be able to sue every maker of communications devices from internet switches to radio technology used by NASA. Go Apple! Sue the world!
Hmm. I wonder if this will be as successful as when Apple ditched Portal Player. Considering my first gen iPod Shuffle sounds better than my iPhone 4S when playing back the same music files, I'm going to go ahead and assume not.
Apple is pissed off because Audience delivered its IP for the "Xiaomi Mi2" Android phone, which is also not to far from an iPhone rip-off.
I'm pretty certain that with Thomlinson Holman having been hired by Apple, they are leading some really innovative changes and IN-sourcing some of their audio technology, speaker improvements microphone improvements. Hence this dropping of a third party tech that required discreet hardware.
Thomlinson is thought-leading researcher in sound/acoustic engineering and definitely THE authority, auteur-type steve-jobs-like megagenius that is behind a lot of Apple's recent improvements here. Their laptop speakers, the iphone and ipad speakers, and now this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomlinson_Holman
Originally Posted by tylerk36
Holy cow. I just saw that iOS 6 is not compatible with iPad 1st gen. How sad.
You're telling me.
????
The Unicode name for the above emoticon is "Sulking Face", despite it begin red and certainly more angry than sulking. While I think the image itself applies to how I feel, I'm sure that most others unaffected would find the name more appropriate to this situation.
Would you want Apple to dummy down iOS6 just so it would be compatible with 1st gen iPad? This is too limiting, and ignores the competitive pressures from Android, Amazon, Microsoft et al.
Best that Apple focuses on making the very best software that utilizes state of the art processors. Not to despair about your 1st gen iPad, though, it will give many more years of faithful service.
Originally Posted by RFHJr
Would you want Apple to dummy down iOS6 just so it would be compatible with 1st gen iPad?
Probably because they're already doing it with a phone that has the same hardware and a phone that has even worse hardware. The latter of which is older than the first iPad. That's probably why.
Not to despair about your 1st gen iPad, though, it will give many more years of faithful service.
Oh, I'm not doubting that! It's just… getting too small.
I must be losing it.
Is next generation IP, next generation iPhone? I haven't really heard that acronym. Can't find any reference other that next Generation network, but it's not an internet protocol chip. Internal Processor? Integrated Process? Some sites say, next generation ip services are iCloud services? I am lost...
Please explain what that means, would like to know.
Thanks
I guess integrated processor... duh??
Audience's loses their top customer and are raising guidance for the end of 2012?
Originally Posted by rezwits
Is next generation IP, next generation iPhone?
Intellectual property.
Apple's NOT doing away with Siri, so what could have caused this? do they simply not need it anymore?