Atmos Win in Samsung Phones Another Dolby 'Growth Catalyst,' Says Analyst
Dolby’s win with its Atmos post-processing technology in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones gives the company “an important entrée back into Samsung that can hopefully be expanded over time,” said Dougherty & Co. analyst Steven Frankel in a Monday research note. Lenovo and LG also license Atmos. Samsung had been Dolby’s largest mobile customer until spring 2014 when Samsung stopped licensing Dolby’s codec “in a move designed to lower its bill of materials,” he said.
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Dolby, “ramping up its presence” in the mobile market with Samsung, now has "another growth catalyst,” said Frankel, along with Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Vision licensees Apple, Lenovo and LG. Mobile generated 15 percent of Dolby revenue in fiscal 2017, the analyst noted, saying Dolby is “poised for accelerating growth.” Dolby shares closed up Monday 4.8 percent to $65.27.
Samsung, meanwhile, emailed online customers Monday with trade-in offers for those placing pre-orders for the S9 and S9+ from Friday through Monday. The manufacturer guarantees delivery of the S9 ($719) and S9+ ($839) by March 14.
Trade-in values are $350 for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus; $300 for the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, LG V30 and Pixel 2 and XL; and $150 for the Galaxy S6- and iPhone 6-generation phones, the LG G6 and V2, and Google Pixel and XL, it said.
Camera features led the highlights reel of the S9 phones’ Mobile World Congress launch in what Samsung is calling a “reimagined” camera. The company boasted a dual aperture lens -- F1.5 for low light and F2.4 for bright light -- that’s said to adapt “like the human eye,” capable of automatically switching among various lighting conditions. Samsung also pushed a new image sensor assembly -- comprising a sensor, readout circuit and dedicated DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chip -- with faster image processing that enables a super slow-motion mode said to be 32 times slower than normal video.
The S9's machine-learning algorithm, supplied by Loom.ai, analyzes more than 100 facial features of a user from a selfie to generate a personalized 3D avatar, Samsung said. The avatar comes with 18 preset expressions and can also learn to mimic the user’s movements, it said. Loom.ai’s software transforms users into their avatars and allows for the real-time animation of their movements through the device’s camera, without the need for custom hardware or depth sensors, said the company.