Wireless Patent Deal Adds To Qualcomm's China Exposure

Qualcomm reached a new patent license agreement with Lenovo Group.

So far, China's five leading smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Huawei, TCL, ZTE, and Lenovo, have signed new patent license agreements with Qualcomm.

Neither Qualcomm nor Lenovo released any financial details about the agreement. However, they said Lenovo will pay patent fees to Qualcomm for their 3G and 4G cellular technologies sold in China, which is in line with the anti-monopoly provisions agreed by Qualcomm in China in 2015.

Qualcomm said the company has signed over 80 new patent license agreement in China. As the world's leading smartphone processor and modem chip manufacturer, about half of Qualcomm's profits were from cellular technology patent licensing.

In February 2015, Qualcomm started a new round of patent license negotiations with Chinese smartphone makers after the anti-monopoly investigation in China. As the results of the anti-monopoly investigation were released, Qualcomm agreed to pay a penalty of USD975 million and changed some terms and conditions in its license agreement that influenced sales in China. Based on those terms and conditions, Qualcomm spent longer time in closing the agreements, which caused the company to lower its quarterly financial expectations in November 2015.

Source: Wireless Patent Deal Adds To Qualcomm's China Exposure

Samsung’s Edge Displays to Hit Chinese Flagships in 2016

Last week, just before the show floor opened on yet another Mobile World Congress, Samsung announced their new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones. Unsurprisingly, Samsung is making good use of their flexible OLED technology, with a 5.5-inch display on the Galaxy S7 Edge featuring the same edges that fall away on both the left and right of the display. Despite the fact Samsung has only been using this technology a couple of years now, it's become a trademark for the new look Samsung unveiled this time last year. If latest reports are to be believed, this Edge display might not be a Samsung-exclusive for long however, as Chinese manufacturers will be launching similar devices later this year.

Word from South Korea is that Samsung will be supplying the likes of Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi with flexible OLED displays, and that each of them will be launching flagship devices with flexible displays. In the case of Vivo, their upcoming XPlay 5 is already confirmed to be launching with such a display. This gives the XPlay 5 a sleek appearance, with no bezels on either the left or right sides of the device. It might seem strange for Samsung to supply their competition – especially given how poorly they perform in China themselves – with their trademark feature, but ultimately, Samsung will still benefit from such a move. Samsung is a big group of a number of different firms, and Samsung Display is the firm responsible for these AMOLED panels. As this is a separate business from the main Samsung Electronics arm, this gives them a little more freedom to do as they please with their technology, to a certain degree. As such, if Samsung Display keeps bringing the cash in, the larg er Samsung group will still benefit.

For the industry, this could have a good effect all round, after all there's only so much that manufacturers can do to a flat slate-looking smartphone. It's arguable that the Edge displays from Samsung have been one of the biggest changes in smartphone design for the best part of a decade. Samsung doesn't fare well in China, and have in fact stopped marketing their flagship devices as being "a Samsung", which softens any blow that selling this key feature might deliver them. Regardless, it looks as though Android smartphones across the board will start to look a little different and have more to offer, thanks to Samsung.

Source: Samsung's Edge Displays to Hit Chinese Flagships in 2016

Indian tech startups are eyeing the Chinese to save them

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Cheetah Mobile executives on day of IPO. See Also This startup has a radical way to save businesses time on menial office tasks Apple confirms that it accidentally broke Ethernet ports on some Mac computers with a software update The vast majority of UK tech startups want to remain in the EU

For anxious Indian startups seeking to raise capital as their country's tech bubble deflates, the investment plans of companies such as China's Cheetah Mobile could hardly come at a better time.

"The consensus in China seems to be that India will be the next growth engine for the entire global internet market, because of its population, economic growth and rising internet penetration," says Alex Yao, senior vice president at the Beijing-based group, which makes utility software for Android smartphones.

To tap that opportunity, Cheetah is planning a flurry of Indian investments, a process it began last November by leading a Rs880m ($12m) round for GOQii, the wearable fitness device maker founded by Indian entrepreneur Vishal Gondal.

Yao says he plans at least 20 more deals over the next two years, as part of efforts to tie-up with local companies that can help the New York-listed Cheetah's wider expansion plans in India.

Such statements would have drawn little attention in India for most of last year, as the country's tech scene boomed and record capital flooded in, both from Silicon Valley venture groups and technology investors including SoftBank, the Japanese telecoms company.

Yet following a sharp drop-off in Indian deals in the final quarter of last year, industry figures say finding fresh funds has become even tougher in 2016, against the backdrop of a global correction in start-up valuations.

For entrepreneurs and investors gathered last week at Surge, a conference for start-up entrepreneurs in the Indian technology capital of Bangalore, the prominence of companies like Cheetah raised a tantalizing prospect: might Chinese companies step in, just as others were drawing back?

"It is getting harder to raise funds, that is true, but we have seen new sources of funds before," says Vani Kola, managing director at ‎Kalaari Capital, an India-focused venture group, referring to recent moves by global pension funds and investment managers to begin backing local start-ups.

"There are a good number of big Chinese tech players with billions on their balance sheets . . . we know many are looking to India."

The idea that China's internet giants could play a larger roll in India took hold last year with the arrival of Alibaba, the ecommerce group. Founder Jack Ma unveiled an aggressive investment strategy, putting $680m into payments group PayTM while also funding the likes of Snapdeal, India's second-largest ecommerce site.

AP ImagesAlibaba's Jack Ma

Alibaba's model of first backing local start-ups rather than launching its own services is one that others have since followed, notably Chinese internet group Tencent, which led a $90m funding round for health technology group Practo last August.

More are now weighing deals. Beijing-based search engine Baidu said last month that it was examining investments in three Indian start-ups including restaurant portal Zomato. Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi have also said they plan to take stakes in local companies, as they target growth in India's fast-growing mobile market.

"More and more Chinese companies seem to see India as a second China. It isn't something we are planning, but many will want to invest," says Peter Lau, co-founder of OnePlus, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of high-end mobile handsets looking to expand its own operations in India rather than investing in local start-ups.

The hope that Indian start-ups struggling to raise funds could find a Chinese savior may well prove illusory. Chinese companies have so far been choosy over potential deals, with many wary of India's complex business climate and unfamiliar culture.

Others face growing problems at home as China's economy slows, potentially limiting plans for big overseas expansion.

Even Ma is understood to have cooled on some deals of late, for instance putting on ice long-rumoured plans to buy a stake in Micromax, India's largest domestic smartphone maker by sales.

Equally, the Indian start-ups struggling to raise money from other sources are also likely to prove least attractive to Chinese investors as well.

"The idea that Chinese companies will swoop in and save bad businesses - that isn't going to happen," says Kola.

Still, Yao of Cheetah Mobile says India continues to appeal to Chinese tech groups seeking new international opportunities, attracted both by the market's potential size and its likely rapid growth as the country's online population surpasses 500m in a few years' time.

"This is an under-developed market, at least three to five years behind China," he says. "So Chinese companies think we can potentially replicate our successes by investing here, by playing for the long term."

This article was written by James Crabtree from The Financial Times and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

Read the original article on Financial Times. Copyright 2016.

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Source: Indian tech startups are eyeing the Chinese to save them

Smartphone innovation hits a wall

Attendees arrive at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain(Photo: Edward C. Baig)

BARCELONA —You're pretty satisfied with the smartphone in your pocket, especially if you got it in the last year or so. The screen is lovely. The device is relatively zippy. The camera takes perfectly acceptable pictures and video.

Yeah, you groan here and there about a missing feature, declining storage, or — the complaint I still get most — a battery that dies too soon. But none of these things is driving you to upgrade. Where's a killer feature when you need one?

Reaching folks like you is a tall order for the companies exhibiting here last week at Mobile World Congress, from a market leader like Samsung, which unveiled its latest flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge devices, to any number of handset makers who don't have near the resources or clout of the South Korean tech giant.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USAT)

It's apparently becoming more of a challenge for Apple, too.

To be sure, smartphones almost always get better through each model step-up, and with beefier specs.

Still, it's worth asking: is better, better enough?

"The challenge is how do you make money in an environment where everyone can source components that are good enough?" asks Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis.

Indeed, smartphone innovation appears to have run smack into a great big wall, with most tech breakthroughs hitting other corners of tech, such as autonomous cars and virtual reality.

USA TODAY

First look: Samsung Galaxy S7 and 360 camera

According to Gartner, global sales of smartphones grew by just 9.7% (to 403 million units) in the fourth quarter of 2015 over the same period last year, the slowest rate of growth since 2008.

'Is there anything different?'

"I was just in the car with our head of engineering reading out specs of one of the launched phones here and it was like, `Is there anything that's different?' And the answer is it's really hard to tell," says Rick Osterloh, president and chief operating officer of Motorola, now owned by the Chinese tech company Lenovo.

Motorola didn't launch any major new devices at MWC, though Osterloh says, "We think we're working on some stuff that is really interesting innovation that will hopefully change things in the coming future." He wouldn't elaborate.

"5G allows lots of different industries to join mobile"

Qualcomm Chief Technology Officer Matt Grob

Another Chinese company, Huawei, now the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, also didn't announce major new smartphone hardware, pushing instead a Windows 10-based tablet hybrid called MateBook.

Colin Giles, an executive vice president at the company, says Huawei has been concentrating on smartphone fundamentals: in camera, display, battery, fast charging and performance management. "Now as Huawei becomes the clear number three (in global share), the responsibility turns to us as one of the market leaders to do more in terms of our innovation." Giles says Huawei devotes 16% of revenues to R&D.

LG's removable battery

One company that actually revealed something different at the show is LG. Its new G5 is built around a "modular" design, in which you can remove a bottom piece of the phone, slide out the battery and slide in accessories, for starters a camera module (with extra battery), and a module featuring high-res audio. LG's approach is interesting and bears watching, but the idea of bolting on accessories, however it is done, isn't entirely novel.

The LG G5 phone features a modular design. (Photo: LG)

The approach that HP is taking with the HP Elite x3 Windows 10 phone that launched here isn't entirely a new concept either. But the pitch behind this robust Windows 10 phablet, which is due out this summer and for now anyway squarely aimed at enterprise customers, is that through the Windows 10 technology known as Continuum and optional accessories, a single device can serve as your phone, your notebook and your desktop computer. There's no guarantee though that Windows 10 phones will gain any meaningful traction.

Phone designs inevitably change over time, sometimes more dramatically than other times. Manufacturing tweaks lead to curved glass and edges. Do phones with flexible displays have a future? Or phones that exploit multiple displays? Samsung devoted a little more space on the S7 edge to the secondary "edge" display that can take over part of the main 5.5-inch screen.

Speculation is that after enlarging the size of its screens with recent iPhones, Apple may go small again with models that could launch next month.

Materials  can change, too. Manufacturers use high-quality metals. Or in the case of the new top end flagship XI 5 from China's Xiaomi, a ceramic body. (The phone is not slated for the U.S. market anytime soon.)

"You haven't seen massive change in hardware. It's a piece of glass," says Glenn Lurie, President & CEO of AT&T Mobility. "Now we're starting to talk about where the apps world goes, where does the cloud come in, what's going to happen behind that piece of glass to make it more valuable?"

Indeed, with all the fuss surrounding hardware, any advances on the software side or with the apps ecosystem are equally crucial. So, too, with the networks.

At MWC, there was a lot of activity around the 5G type networks that Verizon and AT&T start running tests on in the U.S. this year. But commercial viability for 5G doesn't likely arrive until 2020, and even with the faster speeds and lower latencies that 5G promises, the more major impact goes beyond the handset, whatever a handset looks like four years out.

"The biggest message is 5G is a lot more than just faster," says Qualcomm Chief Technology Officer Matt Grob. "If you think of what the smartphone did to many other consumer electronic products like cameras, camcorders, voice recorders, VCRs, GPS navigation, it basically sucked them all in. 5G allows lots of different industries to join mobile."

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter

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Source: Smartphone innovation hits a wall

How Ringing Bells, founded by Mohit and Dhaarna Goel, plans to make the cheapest smartphone

Talk can be cheap. Especially when you audaciously claim to be hatching a plan to make a smartphone for Rs 251. From being accused of relabelling an existing brand (Adcom Ikon) to plotting a Ponzi scam, Mohit and Dhaarna Goel heard it all over the past week. The cynicism and suspicions were perhaps justified — the company the Goels have founded, Ringing Bells, and the handset they tom-tom as the world's cheapest, Freedom 251, is an outrageous gambit. The cheapest smartphones in the world today — Chinese handsets, of course — are priced at Rs 2,200-2,500. Selling one for almost a tenth of that price is either a lie, a delusion — or dazzlingly disruptive.

Talk can be cheap, but it may well be the Goels' mantra — or, more precisely, the handset that you talk into. The husband-wife duo who got married in January this year allude to their lack of pedigree and profile for the dollops of scepticism directed at them. "Jisne Nano banayi uske paas achha support thaa, maine RS 251 mein smartphone banayi, mere paas support nahin hai (The one who made the Nano had ample support, but I am making a smartphone for Rs 251 and have no support)," rues 29-year-old Mohit, who was born in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district and comes from a family of dry-fruit traders. "I am with my husband and support his dream," pipes in Dhaarna.

He'll need more than that. After all, the man who, at different phases in his youth, contemplated cricketing and acting careers, is now talking about "bridging the digital divide in India by making smartphones accessible to all". A recent PEW research report placed India at the bottom in smartphone ownership, at 17% of the country's adults; Brazil is at 41%, Chin a at 58% and South Korea is on top with 88%. On Saturday, PTI reported that the Enforcement Directorate had begun a probe into Ringing Bells' financials, although company officials told ET Magazine that no summons or notices had reached them at the time of writing. The company has also come under the scanner of the Income-Tax department, and the Telecom Ministry had sought a clarification from the firm for marketing the Freedom 251 smartphone without the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification. The Goels say they have replied to the ministry's queries, although they did not share the details of those replies with ET Magazine.

Where's the Office?To send a message that they're not fly-by-night operators, on Saturday Ringing Bells said that the company would refund the online payments for some 30,000 orders that poured in on the first pre-booking date (after which the company's website crashed). The mode of payment now will be only cash on delivery. The Goels hope to begin deliveries of Freedom 251 by April, and keep at it till the end of June. Keeping the Goels and their dream unlikely company is a 65-year-old astrop hysicist.

Ashok K Chadha, who has been busy doing the rounds of ministries to convince bureaucrats that they are indeed serious players, also takes out a fair bit of time to convince ET Magazine of the same in a freewheeling chat with the trio at Ringing Bells' corporate office earlier this week.

B44, Sector 63, Noida. The Uber cab driver is unable to locate the address. "Aapne sahi address daala tha booking karte (Did you enter the right address while booking)?" he asks. Reports of a "fake address" in sections of the media flash before this writer's eyes, until a tea vendor by the roadside offers: "Wo 251 waale? Paas main hi hai. Aagey se seedhe haath ko (The 251 guy? It's nearby, take a right)."

In a double-storey building, the top floor is occupied by Ringing Bells. As we take a spiral staircase to the office, we are greeted with a flurry of motivational quotes plastered on the walls. "An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it," says one. Another one reads: "You are not responsible for the past, but you are for the future." A third goes: "Self-control is knowing you can, but deciding you won't."

The office is sparsely populated. A Tricolour flag, a statue of Lord Ganesha and a receptionist constitute the welcome committee.

There is a coffee machine on the extreme end of the floor, a few cubicles with executives working on their laptops and a conference room.

Around 5.30 pm, Mohit, Dhaarna and Chadha arrive. Mohit checks his mail and messages on his Samsung Galaxy S Duos mobile. "Do you know how much I paid for this handset," he asks. "Rs 28,000 a year back. And now it's available for Rs 17,000." His short point: Margins in the handset business are mind-boggling.

Sure, you agree, but that doesn't mean a smartphone can be put together at the cost of a pizza. "We are not making it for Rs 251, but selling it for Rs 251," clarifies Mohit.

One Crore PhonesAnd therein hangs an audacious busines s model that takes shape only after a huge assumption: that Ringing Bells will be flooded with demand that will justify placing an order for one crore handsets.

The cost of assembling a smartphone with the specs offered by Ringing Bells is Rs 1,584. If 10 lakh of those handsets are made, the cost of assembling per unit falls to Rs 1,495. And at 1 crore handsets, the economies of scale kick in big time, with the cost falling to Rs 1,165.

Bagging one crore orders, feel the founders, isn't unreasonable at all in the light of the 7.5 crore registrations on the Freedom 251 website in the first two days after it was opened to the public.

Mohit reckons he needs to earn around Rs 1,000 per handset to be comfortably profitable. And he's chalked out multiple revenue streams, from pre-installed apps to a marketplace model, to bring home that bacon (see The Scale Gambit). Also, Freedom 251 is just one of the four models Ringing Bells plans to launch; the other three will be pr iced at Rs 2,999, Rs 999 and Rs 799. It also has a power bank for Rs 399. Deliveries of the RS 2,999 phone (called Smart 101) are expected to begin in a week.

Investment? A Measly Rs 17 crore"The business model is disruptive, unique and radically different from the trodden path," says Chadha. There are four mantras he swears by: low marketing costs, economies of scale, use of technology and roping in partners to help subsidise the product cost. A reasonable margin, according to him? "Rs 30 or so per phone." Chadha claims the company has invested Rs 17 crore so far — peanuts considering that handset makers are spending over six times that amount to put up a single factory (in December, Micromax reportedly had committed to invest Rs 300 crore in three factories).But then make in India — or anywhere else — is the last thing on the minds of the founders. Rather, the game plan is to ally with assembling units, which will put together components imported from Taiwan. Mohit claims to have tied up with a handset assembly unit in an industrial zone in Greater Noida, and takes this writer to the factory that's an hour's drive from the corporate office. "You will see it (the Rs 251 smartphone) soon," grins Chadha.

Impossible, Say ExpertsTech analysts don't share that optimism. "We don't think it is possible to breach such a low price point," says Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, a global tech research firm. There is no doubt that the smartphone hardware ecosystem in now mature and scaling down to lower price points, but it's still not mature enough to breach the sub $20 price point.

Pathak explains that there are several costs attached to a product from the production stage to the end-channel level, which are quite complex to understand. Moreover, there are many variables that can impact the cost advantage, a few of which even the manufacturer can't control; these include currency fluctuations, change in policies, duties, certifications and royalties. So different sourcing operations, whether importing entirely or assembling in India, may not offer as significant a cost advantage as the one envisaged by Ringing Bells.

The Ryanair ModelThe tech view is circumspect, but those who swear by low-end disruption may be willing to give Ringing Bells a chance. And there are precedents of low-cost innovators thriving on the purchasing power of those at the bottom of the pyramid of their respective markets with a cut-throat price offering. Example: Ryanair, which created an entire new market of budget travellers by pinching customers from the full-service carriers. It not only offered fares that competed with trains and buses but also flew routes no other airline did. All market disruptors are viewed with disbelief at the start, says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. "In the beginning, you distrust them, then you criticise them, then you hope to scuttle their idea altogether, and then you hope to push them into depression. But eventually, if they actually make it happen, you will praise them to the skies," he says, adding that the lobbies love to raise the decibel of debate even before action has begun.

"Guys, wake up and smell the coffee of a whole new world of possibility. This is not predatory pricing," adds Bijoor. This price point can create a tectonic shift in handset makers' mindsets, profits, margins and more. "If they do deliver, the telecom sector will have a Baba Ramdev (with his Patanjali range of ayurvedic products) of its own," he contends.

Deepak Kumar, a former analyst at global market research agency IDC, points out that the buzz — even the negative vibes — has done Ringing Bells a huge favour on the marketing front. With the message having gone viral and millions of potential buyers now aware of the brand, Ringing Bells has saved itself millions in advertising money, adds Kumar, who has founded the research firm B&M Nxt. "The Rs 251 pricing is a brilliant marketing move." He, however, does concede that advertising will have to be a significant revenue stream for Ringing Bells, which could end up compromising on user experience.

The buzz factor notwithstanding, the entire process of assembling millions of handsets, delivering them across the country — and then contending with after-sales service — is enough to give even the most plucky of entrepreneurs sleepless n ights.

Alongside, Ringing Bells will also need to focus on earning revenues from other streams. The marketplace model that it aims to pursue, for instance, is a highly competitive one with all the big ecommerce players jostling in that space.

Another potential risk can be termed the disruptor's curse: even if Ringing Bells is able to pull off what most believe is impossible, what's stopping a deep-pocketed rival from copying the business model, wreaking havoc on its economies of scale and putting it out of business?

To be sure, disruptors getting disrupted isn't unheard of. In the mid-2000s, the Flip video camera was hailed as a case study in product innovation, as it disrupted other brands with its size, simplicity (footage could be uploaded into one's YouTube account after plugging in a USB key), features and resolution.

Then Flip itself was disrupted by smartphones led by the iPhone, which offered everything that Flip did and more. By 2011, Cisco, which ha d acquired Flip just two years ago, decided to pull the plug on it.

What Freedom 251 has in common with the Flip, perhaps, is the simplicity of the strategy. And it is simplicity combined with a jaw-dropping price tag that is often the key to mass adoption. Mohit, who reckons he can "still play Test cricket for my country" and had in the past enrolled in Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms' acting academy in Mumbai, has always been looking for that "one chance". This may be it. But, unlike in cricket or on the silver screen, Freedom 251 may be an all-ornothing spin of the wheel.

Source: How Ringing Bells, founded by Mohit and Dhaarna Goel, plans to make the cheapest smartphone

Xiaomi Mi 5 to Hit Shelves in China on March 1

Tech

The Xiaomi Mi 5 smartphone will hit the shelves in China soon.(Photo : Getty Images)

This past week Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled its latest flagship device called the Mi 5. With this device, Xiaomi aims to strengthen its grip on one of the world's biggest smartphone market.

Xiaomi is known for releasing devices that are powerful, but with extremely low prices and the Xiaomi Mi 5 is no exception.

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Unveiled at the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Xiaomi Mi 5 will go on sale in China on March 1. Xiaomi said that it will also release the device in India and other countries, but the company did not provide a specific timeline.

Xiaomi devices are currently not available in the United States and Europe. The Chinese company has not revealed whether it plans to extend its products to these regions soon.

Should Xiaomi decide to release the Mi 5 in other markets outside of China, analysts believe that it will rival flagship devices from Samsung and even Apple.

Two versions of the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be released. The premium model, the Mi 5 Pro, sports a ceramic body, 125GB of storage space, 4GB of RAM and will have a price tag of $413. The entry-level model has a glass body, 32GB of storage space, 2GB of RAM and will cost $305.

In a statement, Xiaomi vice president of international operations said, "This is basically ahead of the pack in many ways when it comes to flagship devices. You're looking at a third to a half of the price that you would expect to pay for another flagship device with similar capabilities."

In terms of hardware specs, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has a 5.15-inch screen with a fingerprint sensor located on the lower front of the device. All models of the Mi 5 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and 16-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Both the premium and basic models of the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship smartphones are available in three colors; black, gold and white.

©2016 Chinatopix All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission

Source: Xiaomi Mi 5 to Hit Shelves in China on March 1

Top Specs that Makes the Xiaomi Mi 5 an Excellent Budget Smartphone

After almost two years, Xiaomi, the famous Chinese smartphone company unveiled its latest flagship device, the Xiaomi Mi 5 at its Spring Conference event in Beijing, China.

Elaborating on the launch of the handset, Hugo Barra, VP, Xiaomi informed, "The Mi 5 will be launching in India shortly after its release in the Chinese market". As Apple gears up to bring dedicated Apple Stores to India, it is said that the company wants to have a level playing field between online and offline retail outlets.

Customers will get to choose from three colors, gold, white and black. The Mi5 will be selling for RMB 1999 (Rs 20000 approx) for 32 GB variant, RMB 2299 (Rs 23000 approx) for 64 GB variant. It packs 3GB worth of RAM along with 64GB built-in internal storage capacity.

In comparison, the Mi4 comes with 3GB RAM and 16GB or 64GB storage. The smartphone features a 5.15-inch full HD display and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor. The front section has a slim home button.

According to Go Benn Lee, product manager, Mobile Phone, Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd, it is because Malaysians generally were more excited over and favoured the Galaxy S6 edge over its non-edge counterpart past year.

The device is also equipped with sunlight display technology, which improves visibility under direct sunlight. It weighs just 133 grams.

In terms of connectivity, all the Mi5 variants will be supporting 4G+ or LTE Advanced with support for VoLTE as well. It is preloaded with Android 6.0 and MIUI 7 software.

Camera is another part where the company claims to have done some significant improvements.

The Mi 5, which sells for 1,999 yuan ($306) to 2,699 yuan, features a 16-megapixel back shooter, ceramic back, fingerprint sensor, 128-gigabyte storage and powerful processor. The Rear Key has gone in the revamped G5, but now at the rear you'll find two cameras - a 16Mp shooter and an 8Mp wide-angle camera (which is great if you know enough about photography to know when you to use which).

Gunman who attacked factory had criminal record in 2 statesFive of the wounded remained in serious condition overnight. "We're working on that", Walton said at the news conference. At 3:30 p.m. a protection from abuse order from Wichita was served to Ford where he worked at the Excel plant.

Source: Top Specs that Makes the Xiaomi Mi 5 an Excellent Budget Smartphone

Top Five Chinese Companies to use Qualcomm’s 3G/4G Technologies

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Source: Top Five Chinese Companies to use Qualcomm's 3G/4G Technologies

Chinese smartphones make a splash

Luis Castillo | February 26, 2016, 2:23

Chinese smartphones make a splash

Meanwhile, Yu said that he personally supports Apple's decision to contest a USA court order requiring it unlock an iPhone used by a suspected criminal, stating consumer privacy is key for the smartphone market.

Chinese site Caixin reports that Apple has agreed to take much smaller fees from banks in China compared to the U.S. as the company this month launches its Apple Pay payments service in the country.

Apple topped the market, followed by Samsung Electronics and Huawei. Little-known brands TCL and OPPO are also taking a good slice of the market.

News about the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 5 came a few weeks ago when the company's senior vice president revealed that the phone will be launched at the end of February. It is also targeting a 30 percent increase this year, which would bring its 2016 sales to over 140 million units.

The fees levied by Apple on merchant interchange revenue have been a stumbling block for the company as it bids to enter new markets.

Kerr said: "It just needs the consumer to be aware of them, and then from that, there's a big tie-in, the networks to be aware of them, to list their phones, to retail their phones, to put it in the mind of the consumers and in the hands of the consumers more importantly". "Samsung was a fast follower in terms of innovation", she said.

The current expansion is a big step forward for Apple, as China has the largest smartphone market in the world. Sources from MediaTek quoted as saying that the in-house production of chips will cost more for the company, eventually leading them to raise the price of their products.

According to Reuters, Xiaomi Inc.is aiming to use smartphone processor chipsets that are self-designed and developed.

The smartphone maker, which is valued at around $45 billion, has seen huge growth due to its tactic of selling low-price, high-spec smartphones and using a mix of social media and selling direct to the consumer to build its brand.

Huawei showed off the laptop - which is powered by Microsoft Corp.s Windows 10 and comes with a detachable screen - to help fuel its rapid ascent in consumer devices.

Should we stay or should we go — European Union voteA requirement for EU members to seek ever closer union will also be amended to explicitly not apply to the United Kingdom. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER David Cameron has announced the European Union referendum will take place on 23 June.

Source: Chinese smartphones make a splash

Samsung Pay is now available in China, but it probably won't catch on

What's This?

The Samsung Pay payment system is demonstrated on a smartphone.

Image: Teresa Dapp/dpa/Corbis

Erik Crouch for Tech in Asia 2016-02-25 18:12:14 UTC

Apple Pay rolled out in China last week to a mixed response. Domestic players WeChat Wallet and Alipay have had years to figure out how the Chinese epayments market works, and a new player — especially one that doesn't offer staple services like discounts, online purchases, and savings accounts — is facing an uphill battle.

But if any foreign company can make a lack of features work to its advantage, it's probably Apple. It's probably not, in other words, going to be Samsung — but that hasn't stopped the company from putting China in its crosshairs, and launching its payments service in the mainland on Wednesday.

Samsung Pay's biggest selling point won't entice China

Samsung Pay launched yesterday in China in an open beta, with a full version expected in March. Entering China is part of Samsung Pay's greater plans for expansion in 2016, where it is also targeting Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain, and the UK.

But it's hard to be optimistic about Samsung Pay's chances in the mainland.

Firstly, there's the simple fact that China isn't like other markets. In the PRC, users don't treat mobile payments as an easier way to access their bank accounts and credit cards: they use them instead of those services.

Alipay and WeChat both offer savings accounts, discount schemes, and integrated payments for a wide variety of services — and that's before you even get to their nationwide acceptance at conventional retail points. There are entire industries — like taxis — that accept cash or epayments, but don't have the hardware to swipe a card.

So Samsung Pay's boast that it can be accepted in most places that can swipe a credit card may be a good sell in America, but don't count on that drawing in too many Chinese users, who are largely uninterested in using those cards in the first place.

But the second, and more important, thorn in Samsung's side is that the Korean manufacturer is just not very popular in China. While it enjoys a comfortable position as one of the world's biggest smartphone producers, Samsung didn't even make the top five brands in China, in terms of units shipped in 2015.

Last year, China's biggest smartphone customers flocked to: Xiaomi, Huawei, Apple, Oppo, and Vivo. I can barely bring myself to write the following sentence because it seems too weird, but here we go. Based on 2015 figures, Oppo Pay — which doesn't exist — has a better chance of catching on in China than Samsung Pay.

China is different

China is arguably the world's most advanced country for epayments. Users in the mainland have grown to trust Alipay and WeChat Wallet as much as — and probably more than — those in other countries trust HSBC or Barclays.

That trust was earned by Tencent and Alibaba, both of which invested heavily into robust feature suites that spanned the gamut of possible demands. Everything from ordering a massage to donating to a charity can be done within WeChat's Wallet service, and Chinese users have grown accustomed to payments services that are far more than just a debit card's information stored within a cell phone.

WeChat Wallet and Alipay also both work on any phone you can throw at them. So however China's top 5 ebb or flow, those platforms can count on their continued place at the top.

Samsung Pay comes up short for the advanced features that Chinese consumers desire, lacks the brand loyalty that may save Apple, and only works on phones produced by the country's sixth most popular brand. That doesn't sound like a winning recipe.

This article originally published at Tech in Asia here

Source: Samsung Pay is now available in China, but it probably won't catch on

LG, Sony fight for survival in India's smartphone space, to exit entry market

NEW DELHI: Japan's Sony and Korean electronics giant LG have decided to scale down their presence in the large-volume entry smartphone market in India. Facing tough competition from Chinese and local vendors, their market share in the smartphone category has slipped to record lows - LG at 0.4% and Sony at 1.5%.

Samsung's grip in the category, with its large set of offerings, has also added to the woes of LG and Samsung, which are reviewing their product line-up. Top industry sources told TOI that LG and Sony have decided to focus on niche mid-tier and premium segments of the smartphone market where competition is not steep.

The domestic smartphone market grew by 20% in 2015 and accounted for sales of nearly 100 million units. While leaders Samsung and Micromax maintained their positions, Sony and LG could not find any traction and their share came down by half. According to data collated by IDC and CyberMedia Research, LG's share in 2014 was nearly 1%, while Sony was between 3.5% and 4%.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Sony India admitted that the company is withdrawing from the low-end segment. "Sony Mobile has shifted its focus more on premium segment within the product portfolio."

The company has also reduced its offerings. "...the number of models will reduce as compared to last year as we shift focus purely on the premium segment," the spokesperson said, listing out the 'Z5' and 'Z5 Dual' devices as key phones. However, Sony does not plan to exit the category. "Sony remains dedicated to the Indian market and will focus on building a stable business foundation going forward by streamlining our operations and seeking increased efficiencies... We have no plans to exit the mobile phone business."

LG too said it is "restructuring and reorganizing" the mobile division, but added that the company has "no reason" to make an exit. "There has been no downsizing, there has been restructuring and reorganizing that are part and parcel of all large organizations, aimed at improving operational efficiencies," a company spokesperson said.

What makes matters worse for them is the top-end is dominated by Apple, with Samsung being the only other player to make a presence. In the mid-tier segment, there is steep competition as Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Motorola (part of Lenovo), Huawei, Gionee and Oppo increase their offerings. Also aggressive in the category are Indian companies led by Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Intex.

LG said it will continue to launch new products. "We have our smartphone portfolio starting from a price point of Rs 8,000 and we shall continue to bring new devices in this price segment. This is in alignment with our smartphone strategy for India and all our future smartphones that are in the pipeline are all aligned to this strategy."However, the company replied with "no comments" to a question on the reasons for its falling market share and its inability to crack the market. "We are committed to the Indian market and are in fact looking at further strengthening our product portfolio here.... we are happy with the way our strategy for India is paying dividends."

Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst at CyberMedia Research for telecom, said to have good volumes, the companies need to be present in low and mid segments in the price bracket of Rs 6,000-8,000, which contributed 22% to smartphone sales in 2015.

Kawoosa said Sony misread the market. "Sony was earlier having phones in the lower price bands, but later it moved to higher price bands. There was a mismatch at how the market was moving, and how they looked at it."

LG, he added, had more focus on categories other than smartpho nes. "So while Samsung built a strong mobile handset product portfolio, LG perhaps gave all its energies in focusing at other electronics segments."

Source: LG, Sony fight for survival in India's smartphone space, to exit entry market

Xiaomi Mi5 smartphone launched; price to start at Rs 21,000 in India

Barcelona: Chinese handset company Xiaomi has unveiled its latest flagship device 'Mi 5' here as it looks to compete head-on with larger rivals like Samsung and Apple to capture a bigger share of the global smartphone market.

Priced RMB 1,999 (USD 305 or about Rs 21,000) onwards, Mi 5 will be one of the first devices with Snapdragon 820 processor to be commercially available. It features up to 4GB RAM and 128 GB flash memory.

Sales will start from March 1 on Mi.Com and Mi Home outlets in China. It will be made available in selected global markets at a later date, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said.

"Our latest flagship has been in the making for 19 months, and it's the most beautiful device we have unveiled so far. With several tech breakthroughs built into Mi 5, it is insanely fast. I am extremely excited to start 2016 on such a strong note," he added.

Mi 5 builds upon the design language of Mi Note, featuring 3D glass. It weighs 129 gm and has 3000 mAh battery and a front fingerprint sensor. It supports 4G+ network (Cat 12) and VoLTE.

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown to become the world's fifth largest smartphone maker.

According to research firm IDC, Xiaomi shipped 70.8 million units in 2015, posting year-on-year growth of 22.8 percent from 2014.

The overall smartphone market grew 10.1 percent to 1.43 billion in 2015 from 1.30 billion units shipped in 2014.

Xiaomi had a global market share of 4.9 percent, behind Samsung (22.7 percent), Apple (16.2 percent), Huawei (7.4 percent) and Lenovo (5.2 percent) till the end of December 2015.

IDC said Xiaomi still gets close to 90 percent of its sales from China.

Xioami sells its products in countries like India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil.

Source: Xiaomi Mi5 smartphone launched; price to start at Rs 21,000 in India

China smartphones going global

SEOUL, South Korea – Move over, Apple and Samsung. The next big smartphone might be from little-known Chinese brands such as TCL and OPPO.

Along with other Chinese phone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, Chinese brands have surpassed Samsung in China and are encroaching on Apple's turf. In the coming years, analysts forecast that these cheap Android phones with not-so-cheap features will likely attract more budget-conscious customers in Europe and even in Samsung's and Apple's home markets, South Korea and the United States.

Chinese phone makers made their global ambitions known at this week's Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei and TCL vied to steal the spotlight from Samsung and LG, both of which announced new high-end phones at the show. Xiaomi, which typically launches phones in China, will preview the Mi 5 phone in Barcelona on Wednesday.

"The Chinese smartphone vendors have a very unique feature – it is the price," said Shu On Kwok, editor of AndroidPIT, a website that tracks Android developments. "You get the same features as an LG or a Samsung smartphone has hardware-wise, but for a lower price."

Samsung saw its market share decline in 2015, while Apple forecast its first revenue decline in over 13 years. Both will have to do more to prove the value of the extra dollars their customers pay.

Along with premium hardware, Apple has tried to position its products as unique by offering software, services and apps that work only on Apple devices – although in many cases comparable services are available for Android devices.

At Samsung's product event Sunday, mobile chief D.J. Koh said "we have other ideas" beyond core smartphone features. Samsung, for instance, is promoting its Galaxy phones' compatibility with a Samsung virtual-reality headset and an upcoming 360-degree camera. But VR is still in its early days, of interest largely to gamers and tech pioneers.

The Chinese brands have already taken their toll on Samsung. Although it's still the largest smartphone maker in the world, Samsung is no longer among the top five phone makers in China, according to market research firms IDC and Counterpoint Technology. Profits from the mobile business have plunged to less than half of what it was in its heyday. Apple's sales in China rose in the fourth quarter, but its growth was outshined by Huawei.

Source: China smartphones going global

World's First 6GB RAM Smartphone to Be Unveiled on March 1st

Although previous rumors claimed Huawei P9 might be the world's first smartphone to pack 6GB RAM, it looks like the Chinese company hasn't yet introduced the flagship, and judging by the latest hearsay, the device won't include such a high amount of memory after all.

Given that vivo's upcoming flagship - the XPlay 5 - will be made official on March 1, it isn't surprising that teasers and leaks related to the device are now coming thick and fast.

The company confirmed the speculation of launching a phone powered by Snapdragon 820 processor in a post that features a teaser image mentioning 6GB RAM.

The fight for those extra GBs will continue this year with Vivo planning to launch the world's first smartphone with 6GB RAM. This is a huge difference in memory compared to other devices in the market which mostly come with 3 GB RAM. However, the shift to 6 GB RAM on smartphones is bound to happen as already several smartphones like the Galaxy S7 have released with 4 GB onboard.

The Vivo XPlay 5 will featur curved screens on two sides, much similar to the Samsung's Edge series of smartphones.

Vivo is leaving no stones unturned to publicise the massive RAM in its Xplay 5.

Other expected specifications include 6-inch Quad HD display with dual-curved edges.

Unfortunately, we doubt that Vivo will make the Xplay 5 available outside China, but there might be some retailers in the Mainland that will offer the smartphone soon after it hits shelves.

As mobile handsets, particularly flagships, become more and more powerful, it seems inevitable we start to see specs like 6GB of RAM shipped in such devices.

Uber 'heartbroken' over MI shooting but defends its driver screeningQuestions about motive and Dalton's frame of mind are "going to be the hardest to answer for anybody", Fuller said. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said Dalton was "even-tempered" when he was approached by officers.

Source: World's First 6GB RAM Smartphone to Be Unveiled on March 1st

New Vivo XPlay 5 teaser out; flagship smartphone confirmed to boast 6GB RAM

New Vivo XPlay 5 teaser out; two key features revealedVivo via Weibo (official site)

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has released a new teaser of the flagship XPlay 5 revealing the device's key features ahead of March 1 launch.

Vivo, on Chinese social media platform Wiebo,  posted the teaser showing the hardware configuration of XPlay 5 confirming that it will boast 6GB LPDDR4 RAM and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core SoC (System-on-Chip).

Once launched, Vivo XPlay 5 will become the world's first smartphone to boast such a high capacity 6GB RAM. Only a handful of top-end phones in the market house 4GB RAM and it was supposed become a standard norm in 2016, but now Vivo XPlay 5 with PC grade hardware will set a new benchmark in the smartphone industry.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is a very important component in a smartphone, and devices with higher capacity RAM are more efficient. RAM optimises resource utilisation among applications so that devices face no lag and work smoothly.

Vivo XPlay 5 is expected to sport a mammoth 6.0-inch dual-edge curved display with QHD (aka 2K: 2560x1440p), Gizmo China reports.

Other expected features of XPlay 5 include 16MP primary camera on the rear side, 8MP snapper on the front and a massive 4300mAh battery.

Since there is one week for the official launch of Vivo XPlay 1, there is a possibility that the company might tease a few more features. Stay tuned for more updates.

Source: New Vivo XPlay 5 teaser out; flagship smartphone confirmed to boast 6GB RAM

ZTE launches all-metal Blade V7 and V7 Lite smartphones

China's ZTE, the world's sixth largest smartphone maker, is introducing new value-priced phone models and aims to sell between 60 million and 70 million devices overall this year, an executive said on Monday. It has a 5.2-inch, 1080p display with curved glass edges and a 78.2-percent body to screen ratio for easier one-handed use. The Blade V7 runs the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is commendable and makes for one up-to-date device. MediaTek's MT6753 64-bit octa-core processor fuels this handset, along with the Mali-T720 GPU.

As yet there are no details on pricing on these new Blade V7 smartphones from ZTE, as soon as we get some more details, we will let you guys know. The rear camera has a 13 MP sensor with phase-detection auto-focus that can focus in 0.3 seconds and dual-tone flash, while the front camera has a 5 MP sensor. Two SIM card slots are available on the inside of the Blade V7 Lite, and a 2,500mAh battery is also a part of the package. Out of the two the Blade V7 is most striking with an all-metal design that instantly catches the eye. "These devices are just the latest milestones in how ZTE will bring imagination and beyond to ignite our users' mobile lives", said Jacky Zhang, CEO of EMEA and APAC, ZTE Mobile Devices.

On the imaging front, the Blade V7 Lite offers an 8-Megapixel primary sensor and an 8-Megapixel secondary sensor as well and thankfully both come paired with a LED flash.

This device will launch first in Russian Federation and then will be available in Mexico, Spain, Germany, and Thailand by spring, according to ZTE.

Smaller than the Blade V7 with a 5-inch display, the Blade V7's features are anything but "lite". In addition to security, the fingerprint sensor can be used to launch apps and handle some phone navigation. Like the Blade V7, the V7 Lite also comes equipped with a powerful camera and Smart Sense gesture control. The Blade V7 comes in Gold and Silver color options, and it will be available for purchase in Germany, Spain, Ethiopia, South Africa and Mexico in the summer, but ZTE still hasn't released any pricing info for it. As overseas users have higher requirements for product quality, the success of Blade is highly significant.

GoFundMe Account Started for Kanye WestThis came to the fore again at an airport, where he stopped a row between two paparazzi descending into a full-blown brawl.

Source: ZTE launches all-metal Blade V7 and V7 Lite smartphones

Lenovo announces Vibe K5, Vibe K5 Plus smartphones at MWC 2016

NEW DELHI: The Chinese smartphone maker Lenovo launched two new smartphones called Vibe K5 and Vibe K5 Plus at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016. The company has priced the Lenovo Vibe K5 at $129, whereas the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus $149. The devices will be available from March, 2016 in platinum silver, champagne gold and graphite gray colour options.

On the specifications front, the Lenovo Vibe K5 features a 5-inch HD display with 1280x720 pixels resolution. It runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system and offers dual sim fucntionlity. Powering the handset is a 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 processor paired with 2GB of RAM. The onboard storage of the smartphone accounts to 16GB which can be expanded further up to 32GB using a microSD card.

'Over 50% of Lenovo smartphones to be made in India in 2016'

Chinese technology giant Lenovo has said more than half of the devices it sells in India this year under the 'Moto' and 'Vibe' brands will be manufactured in Tamil Nadu.

The device flaunts a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera for selfies. On the connectivity front, the smartphone offers 4G, LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and packs a 2,750 mAh battery. On the other hand, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus consists of a 5-inch Full HD display with 1920x1080 pixels resolution. The handset is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. The internal storage of the smartphone stands at 16GB which can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card. The dual sim smartphone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. It comes equipped with a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front facing snapper to facilitate video calling. The connectivity attributes of the device include 4G, LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and it houses a 2,750 mAh battery. The company has also incorporated stereo speakers in the smartphones powered by Dolby audio for better audio experience.

General 2G NetworkYes3G NetworkYes4G NetworkYesDimensions142x71x8.2mmWeight142g

Display Size5-inchTypeHD

Memory Card SlotYesInternal16GB

Data GPRSYesEDGEYesBluetoothYesInfrared PortNo

Camera Primary13MPSecondary5MP

Features OSAndroid 5.1 LollipopCPUocta-coreBrowserHTML 5RadioYesGPSYes

Battery Battery Capacity2,750 mAh

Source: Lenovo announces Vibe K5, Vibe K5 Plus smartphones at MWC 2016

Samsung’s S7 Smartphone Lacks Showstopping New Features

Updated Feb. 21, 2016 1:11 p.m. ET

BARCELONA— Samsung Electronics Co. SSNHZ 0.00 % 's latest flagship smartphone offers few new bells and whistles, a sign of the challenges facing the South Korean technology company in an increasingly saturated market for premium smartphones.

The high-end Galaxy S7 and its curved-screen companion, the Galaxy S7 Edge, released on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress trade show Sunday, look strikingly similar to their predecessors and lack fresh features to set them apart in a crowded field of Android handsets.

The smartphones come with an improved camera and longer battery life, in addition to two features that had been dropped from the Galaxy S6 last year: removable memory storage and water resistance.

The Galaxy S7 Edge features curves on all four sides of the device, versus the two-sided curve screen on last year's Galaxy S6 Edge.

The lack of a clear showstopper shows the pressure that Samsung's new mobile chief, D.J. Koh, is under to innovate. It also underscores the importance of the technology giant's push into cheaper handsets as a sales driver.

Mr. Koh was promoted late last year as Samsung's mobile chief to replace J.K. Shin as part of the company's annual management reshuffle.

In recent months, Samsung mobile executives have talked up the importance of handsets priced between $75 and $150 in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and Russia, where many consumers don't yet own smartphones.

Sales growth for this year in that segment is set to far outpace that of the premium smartphone market. In the fourth quarter of 2015, smartphone sales in emerging markets grew 13.5% from a year earlier, compared with just 1.5% growth in mature markets such as the U.S., according to research firm Gartner.

But competition is heating up in that segment as well. The larger problem for Samsung, even if it succeeds there, is that most of the company's mobile earnings come from the premium segment of the market, where profit margins are juicier.

Daniel Kim, an analyst for Macquarie Securities in Seoul, estimates that Samsung's flagship smartphones account for about 70% of its annual mobile profit and about a third of the company's total profit.

Analysts say that with innovation slowing and midrange phones matching many of the capabilities of high-end phones, there is little that Samsung's executives can do to reverse the company's fortunes. "I don't think they're happy about this, but there is not much they can do about it," Mr. Kim said. "Growth in the smartphone market is dead, and no one is free from this trend—Apple, Samsung, LG, even the Chinese."

'Growth in the smartphone market is dead, and no one is free from this trend—Apple, Samsung, LG, even the Chinese.'

—Daniel Kim, analyst at Macquarie Securities

Pushing the Galaxy S7 could be a difficult sell when many consumers say that their existing handsets are good enough.

At the Mobile World Congress, Xiaomi Corp., ZTE Corp. ZTCOY 3.19 % , LG Electronics Inc., 066570 0.83 % Sony Corp. SNE -1.13 % and a bevy of low-cost handset makers are releasing new flagship smartphones with price tags lower than Samsung's phones.

Samsung didn't disclose the price of its new handsets, but typically its high-end devices cost more than $600 without a carrier contract. Samsung's mobile division has been suffering from two years of tepid demand. The poorly received Galaxy S5 and the misreading of demand and supply for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge crimped mobile earnings.

In the last three months of 2015, operating profit for Samsung's mobile division was down 60% from two years earlier. Analysts expect Samsung's operating profit this year to decline 10% from 26.4 trillion won ($21.5 billion) last year and revenue to shrink for the third year in a row.

"Samsung really needs to show key carrier partners that the company is capable of bringing in notable changes to the phone in a way that would be acknowledged as innovation," said Greg Roh, a Seoul-based analyst with HMC Investment & Securities.

He said Samsung will need to introduce next-generation form factors such as foldable devices as soon as possible. Mr. Koh, the Samsung mobile chief, will be under the microscope this fall with the annual refresh of the Galaxy Note series of smartphone-tablet hybrids. "That will be a lot more telling of his contributions," Mr. Roh says. Mr. Koh also a longtime Samsung executive who is credited internally with overseeing the company's push into software and serviceswill lead the rollout of Samsung Pay this year in China, Brazil and parts of Europe—despite the fact that the service doesn't generate any revenue for the company

In his first public appearance since taking over as the head of the business, Mr. Koh said this week in a video: "I am very confident about the result of our hard work for the past several months and can't wait for our consumers' feedback." Macquarie's Mr. Kim sees the new chief's main test as defending the position Samsung has established as the world's No. 1 seller of smartphones, when the global market for high-end smartphones has stopped growing.

Key to that effort is in software and services, including the company's mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, and its enterprise security platform Knox.

"They want to lock in their customers," says Mr. Kim. "They don't want to lose more customers to Apple."

Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com and Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com

Source: Samsung's S7 Smartphone Lacks Showstopping New Features

Multinationals eye China as consumption pattern shifts

BEIJING, China (Xinhua) – On its launch day in China, Apple Pay saw over 30 million Chinese bank cards linked to the payment service, an achievement that impressed Apple Pay Vice-President Jennifer Bailey.

"We think China could be our largest Apple Pay market," Bailey told media last Thursday.

To lure more customers, some of Apple Pay's partner banks worked with Starbucks to offer discounts to customers who pay with Apple Pay.

With wages up and people accumulating wealth, the rising middle class is driving a major shift in China's consumption pattern, making the country a huge market that multinationals can ill afford to ignore.

Increasingly, Chinese are able to afford more than just the bare necessities. Instead, they spend on things they like but don't need, those "discretionary items".

According to data from consulting firm McKinsey & Co, discretionary spending is forecast to grow over seven per cent annually between 2010 and 2020, while semi-necessities, including health care and apparel, will expand around six to seven per cent, all surpassing the growth rate of actual necessities.

The shift is already seen in satisfying results reported by companies selling high-end products, such as Apple.

While an iPhone costs almost five times the average price of a domestic smartphone, Apple has a substantial consumer base in China that not only pays for the phone itself but for the brand.

"There's an enormous number of people moving into the middle class and I think this provides us with great opportunities to win over some of these customers into the Apple ecosystem," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive during an earnings call.

"We remain very bullish on China, and don't subscribe to the doom and gloom kind of predictions frankly," Cook said.

The Chinese middle class for the first time outnumbered those in the United States in 2015, hitting 109 million at the American standard after purchasing power is adjusted, according to a report by Credit Suiss.

And the number continues to climb. In 2015, China's national per capita disposable income rose 7.4 per cent from 2014 in real terms, outpacing GDP growth.

Seeing the opportunities of an increasingly well-off society, foreign firms are tapping into China's entertainment industry to monetise on the growing interest in the high-end recreational market.

American film studio 20th Century Fox, for example, told

China Daily recently that it had chosen Beijing to be the destination of the world's first ever Simpsons store.

To be opened in March, the store will offer merchandise related to the American animated sitcom, which has proven to be very popular in China.

The decision followed a similar move by Walt Disney Co, which opened the world's largest Disney store in Shanghai in May 2015 to huge queues of customers.

The domestic entertainment industry is also taking off thanks to this shift. During the Spring Festival holiday, box office sales surged 67 per cent year on year to three billion yuan.

Spending on recreational activities including travel, dining, sports, and gaming in China still lags behind the developed world, and "fun" has the biggest potential for growth, said a Goldman Sachs report on consumer research.

Source: Multinationals eye China as consumption pattern shifts

Xiaomi plans to use smartphone chips designed in-house in the second half of 2016

Xiaomi, China's leader in smartphone shipments in 2015, has aspirations to be a chipmaker this year. This would put Xiaomi in the same boat as Apple, Samsung and Huawei, which also design chips in-house.

The Chinese smartphone maker hopes to use smartphone processor chips designed in-house in the second half of 2016, according to Reuters. Xiaomi will use these in-house chips in mid- to lower-priced RedMi Note series of smartphones.

Related: Everything you need to know about the Xiaomi Mi 5

The company has hired 200-300 people to work on designing smartphone processor chips, according to a source speaking with Reuters. It's unclear how many chips Xiaomi plans to make this year.

Xiaomi's move into the chipmaking game may put pressure on current industry leaders Qualcomm and MediaTek. Qualcomm, based in San Diego, California, ended the third quarter of 2015 with 67 percent of the 4G-integrated baseband processor market, according to Bloomberg data. Taiwanese MediaTek ended the same period with 17 percent of the market. Qualcomm has seen its market share decline while MediaTek has seen a steady climb.

MediaTek, which currently supplies most of the chips in Xiaomi's mid- to low-priced handsets, may experience the biggest effects of Xiaomi's in-house-designed chips.

Xiaomi was the leader in smartphone shipments to China in 2015, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The company shipped 64.9 million units in China, giving it 15.0 percent of the market. Huawei (14.5 percent), Apple (13.4 percent), OPPO (8.1 percent), and vivo (8.1 percent) followed.

Part of Xiaomi's success appears to be tied to its $141 average selling price, the lowest of the top five vendors in China.

Source: Xiaomi plans to use smartphone chips designed in-house in the second half of 2016

Freedom 251: Cheapest smartphone rings in I-T raids, confusion

The income tax department raided the office of the controversial mobile phone company Ringing Bells in Noida on Friday and grilled its employees on the launch of "the world's cheapest smartphone" called Freedom 251.

The company has promised to deliver 25 lakh handsets by June 30, though it's not clear how a fledgling firm would be able to execute such a huge order apparently without any matching infrastructure.

Hundreds of eager buyers thronged outside the company's office on Friday. But the confidence of the firm's promoters seemed far from ebbing. "We will deliver the handsets that we have promised within the given timeframe," Mohit Goyal, the company's proprietor, told reporters. He said the company would also satisfy the government "on all counts".

Hundreds of people who had booked the phone demonstrated outside the Ringing Bells office as a three-member I-T department team rummaged through the company's documents.

Lakhs of people had logged on to the company's website to book the device which is being sold for as little as Rs 251 plus a Rs 40 charge for home delivery. The company's website crashed within a few minutes of its launch on Wednesday.

Interestingly, while the company had created a huge hype on 'Make in India' in its ads, most built-in app icons on the Freedom 251 are a direct copy of icons on Apple's iPhone. Even the web browser app is a copy of Apple's Safari browser that is the property of iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.

The smartphone also sports a shiny logo of the import firm Adcom which, interestingly, sells an identical version of the phone for Rs 4,000 on its website.

The Freedom 251 device is also supposed to be pre-loaded with government apps.

However, market experts have raised their doubts about anyone being able to assemble a mobile phone, leave along a smartphone, at such a small cost. The experts say it's impossible to put together a mobile phone for anything less than Rs 3,000 by even the cheapest producers in China.

Source: Freedom 251: Cheapest smartphone rings in I-T raids, confusion

Freedom 251, world's cheapest smartphone launch event

It has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 8GB of memory, which can be expanded to 32GB.

On the Freedom 251 website, Ringer Bells states that its vision is to "empower citizens, even in the remotest rural and semi-urban centres of India, with the latest in digital technology at incredible affordable prices and cascade knowledge, news and current issues so that all experience the confidence of inclusive growth and equal opportunity".

It features a 3.2-MP rear camera and a 0.3-MP front facing camera and a 1,450-mAh battery.

The smartphone comes with pre-installed apps like Swachh Bharat, Women Safety, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, among others.

Sporting a 4-inch Wide Video Graphics Array display and a 540×960 resolution, the Freedom 251 will cost a measly Rs. 251.

The world record for the cheapest smartphone has been smashed with the introduction of a device that costs just £2.50. The phone is yet to hit the market.

Ringing Bells, based in the Delhi satellite city of Noida, was set up only a year ago and the launch event for the new phone on Wednesday night was attended by a senior leader from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party.

Cheap smartphone handsets, many of them Chinese-made, are readily available in the Indian market but domestic competitors are making inroads, with models selling for less than $20.

India is the second-largest mobile phone market in the world, behind China, but only 19% of the population are on the internet.

In the last few months, global smartphone makers, including the likes of Xiaomi, Motorola and Gionee have commenced assembling their handsets in India, where the government is pushing local manufacturing through its Make in India initiative.

Source: Freedom 251, world's cheapest smartphone launch event

Is Freedom 251 really the Chinese Adcom Ikon4?

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: As per reports floating online, Freedom 251 is nothing but Chinese smartphone Adcom Ikon4, which was selling on Flipkart around Rs 4,000.

The reports allege that Ringing Bells has covered the branding of the phone using a whitener and sticker.

As per media reports, the company booked 30,000 orders on the first day, even though going by the company's claims, the website observed 6 lakh hits per second.

It is being assumed that with 30,000 orders booked, the company would have made more than Rs 87 lakh at the value of Rs 291 per phone including the shipping charges of Rs 40.

Source: Is Freedom 251 really the Chinese Adcom Ikon4?

Global smartphone sales post slowest growth since 2008:Gartner

Huawei performed particularly well, showing a 53 percent increase in sales compared to the previous year as it focused entirely on selling smartphones.

While affordability is a key engine of the remaining smartphone market growth, Gartner also views channel strategy and knowledge of local consumer market dynamics becoming increasingly important - as a outcome of what the analyst dubs the "highly commoditized" Android market.

Last month Apple announced it expected to report its first decline in iPhone sales since the device's introduction in 2007, in the second quarter of 2016, following the company's lowest iPhone sales figure to date.

Samsung maintained its top position, although its market share declined by 2.2% in overall smartphone sales during the year 2015.

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 403 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, a 9.7 percent increase over the same period in 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.

Huawei achieved the best performance year over year - growing 53 per cent, and rising from a 5.7 per cent marketshare in Q4 2015 to 8.0 per cent in Q4 2015. For the whole of 2015, however, its market share fell to 22.5% from 24.7%.

"Current market conditions are prompting some vendors to consider setting up manufacturing operations in India and Indonesia to avoid being hit by future unfavorable currency devaluations and high import taxes", Gartner said.

Indeed, Huawei alone increased its worldwide smartphone sales from 68 million in 2014 to 104 million in 2015, partially thanks to an expansion drive in emerging markets.

Apple's South Korean rival, Samsung witnessed increased sales and it along with Huawei clocked an upsurge in the sales of its smartphones. "For Samsung to stop falling sales of premium smartphones, it needs to introduce new flagship smartphones that can compete with iPhones and stop the churn to iOS devices", said Anshul.

Android benefited from continued demand for affordable smartphones and from the slowdown of iOS units in the premium market in the fourth quarter of 2015, Gartner said.

The data upheld the dominance of Android OS, which held an overall market share of 80.7 per cent. In the Q4 2014 Android smartphones held a market share of 76 per cent. Even the launch of Windows 10 could not help Microsoft gain a significant share in the market as the OS held a mere 1.1 per cent share in the smartphone market in Q4 2015.

Despite the decline, Apple's total market share for the year increased.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technology Co.

FIR against Kanhaiya Kumar based on TV channel reportStrong action will be taken against lawyers, if found guilty of indulging in violence at Patiala House Court. The Bar Council of India said it had appointed a three-member panel to investigate the violence by lawyers.

Source: Global smartphone sales post slowest growth since 2008:Gartner

Worldwide IT Spending Expected to Post Significant Slowdown in 2016, with China Set to Post its First-Ever Decline, According to IDC

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Worldwide IT spending is expected to post a major slowdown in 2016, as economic weakness in emerging markets and saturation of the smartphone market combine to result in a significantly slower pace of tech spending growth compared to the past six years. Having posted annual growth of 5-6% in constant currency terms since recovery from the financial crisis in 2010, the global IT market is expected to increase by just 2% this year (in constant currency). Total IT spending on hardware, software and services will reach $2.3 trillion in 2016. Including telecom services, total ICT spending will increase by 2% to $3.8 trillion, according to the latest data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book.

Worldwide IT spending will reach $2.3 trillion in 2016, an increase of just 2% year over year, according to IDC. IT spending was relatively stable in 2015, in spite of the volatile economy, propelled by another strong year for smartphone shipments, which compensated for a weakening PC market throughout the year. Smartphones accounted for half of the overall industry growth rate of 6% in 2015. Spending on cloud infrastructure was also strong throughout the year, resulting in growth of 16% for the server market and 10% for storage systems. Enterprise spending on software, including SaaS, posted healthy growth of 7% with strong investment in analytics, security, and collaborative applications. However, the strong US dollar made 2015 an uncomfortable year for US-based IT companies. In US dollar terms, the overall IT market declined by 2% last year, and exchange rate volatility remains a wild card which could influence the fortunes of IT suppliers over the next 12 months.

"Aside from exchange rate volatility, IT spending has been relatively stable for the past five years," said Stephen Minton, Vice President with IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis group. "Excluding mobile phones, overall tech spending has continued to grow at 3-4% each year in constant currency terms since we recovered from the disruption of the financial crisis. A solid PC upgrade cycle in 2014 was followed by a major cycle of infrastructure spending in 2015, mostly driven by cloud. IT buyers continue to prioritize software investments like data analytics and enterprise mobility, and have increasingly leveraged the service provider model in order to increase the effectiveness of their IT budgets. Underlying buyer sentiment is strong."

IT spending in China has been a growing source of revenue for tech vendors in recent years, and the market grew by 11% in constant currency terms last year, driven by strong growth in smartphones and cloud infrastructure. However, we now see signs of increasing maturity in the smartphone market after the phenomenal growth of the past seven years, and this is now expected to result in overall IT spending posting its first -ever decline (of -0.3%). While the smartphone slowdown is more heavily related to market maturity than economic weakness, we also forecast a decline in PC sales, and softening growth of spending on servers, storage, and peripherals compared to last year. The software market in China has so far remained relatively stable, but accounts for only 5% of overall IT spending (compared to 30% in the United States). As a result, China is more exposed to volatile swings in capital spending, with hardware markets tending to be more sensitive to economic disruption.

"The slowdown in China is largely connected to increasing rates of market penetration and price competition, but the current economic uncertainty also represents a significant downside risk for the rest of 2016," said Minton. "Emerging markets in general are fragile, and weaker growth in China has already had a negative impact on countries such as Brazil. Mature markets like the US and Europe have been somewhat more stable over the past 12 months, but the downside risks have now increased across all geographies, and the likelihood of a more widespread slowdown in IT spending is now higher than three months ago."

IT spending in the US is currently expected to remain broadly stable, assuming there are no significant disruptions to the broader economy. The US IT market is forecast to increase by 4% for the fourth consecutive year, in spite of an expected decline in the PC market and weakening growth in servers and storage. US businesses continue to invest strongly in 3rd Platform solutions around Big Data, Cloud, Mobile and Social. The "new normal" of 4% annual growth in IT spending is likely to continue in 2017, assuming the overall economy remains in line with current expectations.

Western Europe will post weaker growth in 2016 than 2015, due to the increased maturity of the smartphone market and a deceleration from the double-digit growth of spending on infrastructure last year. Cloud-related investments remained strong over the past 12 months, in spite of inflationary pressures related to currency devaluation, but there are now signs that momentum in the economy is increasingly fragile. However, growth in IT services and software is expected to remain stable, and we also forecast an improvement in the tablet market after a weak performance last year. Including smartphones, overall IT spending in Europe will increase by 1% this year (down from 5% growth in 2015).

Asia/Pacific will post growth of less than 2% in 2016, compared to 7% in 2015, largely due to the overall slowdown in China. The IT market in Japan is expected to stabilize, recovering to growth of 1.5% after posting a slight decline in 2015. India remains a bright spot, and posted growth of 13% last year in constant currency terms, driven by a strong PC market, which was propelled by government initiatives and education projects. While a slowdown in PC revenues and more difficult year-on-year comparisons for cloud infrastructure spending will result in weaker overall IT spending growth of 8% in 2016, underlying sentiment remains strong and we forecast accelerating growth in software and services. India will rebound to double-digit growth in 2017, and will represent an increasingly vital source of growth for global IT suppliers over the next five years.

"India is a vital market for tech companies in 2016, representing a market that still has huge room and potential for growth across many sectors," said Minton. "India's current importance to many IT vendors in some ways mirrors the importance of China a decade ago. Although the overall market is still much smaller than China, India's expected rate of growth will see it overtake Australia and Canada to enter the top 10 largest IT markets by 2020."

Growth in other emerging markets will be more volatile, however, as economic weakness inhibits IT spending. A major slowdown in Russia last year resulted in an IT spending decline of 8.5%, and the recovery will be gradual and moderate in 2016 (recovering to sluggish growth of just 1% overall). The IT market in Brazil is also expected to be sluggish, forecast to increase by just 3% this year. Excluding smartphones, IT spending in Brazil will post a slight decline, with significant declines in PC and server spending. Overall IT spending in the BRIC markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China will increase by just 1% in 2016.

The IDC Worldwide Black Book, Version 4, 2015 (Doc #US41022916) provides ICT spending forecasts for the 2006–2019 period with a focus on 25 individual market segments across hardware, software, IT services, and telecom services for 54 countries in all regions, including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia/Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The Black Book presents all data in a choice of constant currency or current U.S. dollar exchange rates.

Stephen Minton will present an overview of IDC's ICT forecast for 2016 in a Web conference to be held Thursday, February 18 at 12:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. An on-demand replay of the presentation will be available after the live event. To register, please click here.

About IDCInternational Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.

Source: Worldwide IT Spending Expected to Post Significant Slowdown in 2016, with China Set to Post its First-Ever Decline, According to IDC