Items tagged with China
Well, we didn’t see this one coming. Often times, it’s American companies that are crying foul when it comes to Chinese companies ripping off their designs. However, one of the most vocal protectors of its intellectual property is finding itself under fire in China, and that company is none other than Apple. The Beijing Intellectual Property Office has found that Apple has infringed on the design patents of the Shenzhen Baili 100C smartphone. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are listed as the guilty parties in the infringement, and surprisingly, the virtually identically designed iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus escaped scrutiny (for now). According to CNBC, the ruling only affects iPhone 6 and 6 Plus...
Read more...
Huawei is one of the largest smartphone players in China, though perhaps more importantly, the company has propelled itself into the number three spot overall in the entire world, behind only a pair of juggernauts in Apple and Samsung. In time, Huawei CEO Richard Yu believes his company can leapfrog both of them.That's what a confident Yu told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. In no uncertain terms, Yu said the goal is to be the top smartphone supplier on the planet, not number two or number three. And to reach that goal, Yu said it will take "maybe four or five years." Within that time frame, Yu hopes that Huawei will have more than a 20 percent or 25 percent share of the global smartphone...
Read more...
Sometimes, it's amazing - potentially jaw-dropping - to see huge companies make really boneheaded decisions. A great example of this came to us this past week when Microsoft rolled out an update to its Windows 10 upgrade mechanism in Windows 7 and 8 that could automatically start the process of the upgrade by closing the dialog box. It seems crazy to even say out loud! To say that this caused outrage would actually be an understatement. The world over, people were suddenly having their PCs upgraded after vigilantly dismissing the upgrade offer for months, or even the past year. For experienced users, this would be downright frustrating, but just picture all of those who know just enough about...
Read more...
It's fair to say that relations between the U.S. and China are strained, especially in regards to technology. Security researchers have often traced cyberattacks big and small back to China, for which the Chinese government often denies, and there's contention over shipping products to the region. The latter is likely to escalate as China ramps up its security reviews on U.S. tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft.China has a deep distrust of technology products originating from the U.S. As a result, China's been conducting more intensive reviews of tech companies with a focus on encryption and data storage products. According to anonymous sources who spoke with The New York Times, executives...
Read more...
A court in Beijing has ruled in favor of Facebook in an ongoing trademark dispute with Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks, a Chinese beverage company that registered the term "face book" in 2011. Even though Facebook objected, China's Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ended up approving the "face book" trademark in 2014.Facebook was none too pleased with the trademark authority's decision, and after getting nowhere with the agency, the social network took the matter up with the Beijin court. The court sided with Facebook in its original lawsuit. Zhongshan filed an appeal, but in its most recent ruling, the Beijing court upheld the ruling.It seems like a cut and dry case, though part of Zhongshan's...
Read more...
Much to the chagrin of Apple. a Chinese court has ruled against the company's trademark infringement claim in a case it brought against a seller of luxury leather accessories. The ruling allows Xintong Tiandi Technology to continue using the "IPHONE" name, which it displays in all caps, on things like smartphone cases, wallets, and purses.The good news for Apple is that it retains its trademark for mobile devices, so it doesn't have to worry about an iPhone knockoff, or at least not a legal one with the iPhone branding. Apple can also appeal the decision to the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, though so far it hasn't had the best of luck with trademark disputes in China.Source: iphone.vcXintong...
Read more...
In December, HotHardware reported that Microsoft had entered the planning stages for introducing a tweaked version of its Windows 10 operating system in China, and just three months later, the first iteration is being delivered. You have Windows 10 Pro? China has Windows 10 'Zhuangongban'. That rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? The Chinese government has in the past made it no secret that it's skeptical of potential spying code that could run on software (or hardware) produced by American companies, which results in companies such as Microsoft having to face uphill battles anytime it wishes to release a new product in Asia's largest market. To...
Read more...
If you're passionate about the topics of privacy, government surveillance, and security and also how they relate to the FBI and DOJ's fight to unlock that fateful San Bernardino iPhone, the whole situation likely pales in comparison to what communist countries like China force their citizens to tolerate. In an effort to root out threats to society, the Chinese Communist Party has contracted for development of a data analytics technology of sorts that is best described as taking a page straight out of the 2002 movie staring Tom Cruise called Minority Report. Credit: Flickr TadokoroAs Bloomberg reports, a top Chinese contractor by the name of China Electronics Technology Group is developing a big...
Read more...
China continues to swell with smartphones—the latest data from Strategy Analytics pegs China's smartphone shipments as having grown 3 percent year-over-over to a hit record 438 million handsets in 2015. That's especially good news for Xiaomi, which retained its top spot with a 15.4 percent share of the market, but not so much for Samsung. The South Korean handset maker was pushed out of the top 5 rankings and now occupies the catch-all "Others" category, which collectively accounts for more than four out of 10 handsets (43.1 percent) in China. However, the fifth most popular smartphone brand in China is OPPO, which shipped 33.2 million handsets in all of 2015 to grab a 7.6 percent share. That...
Read more...
Apple is fighting hard to have shoot down a proposed UK law that would require tech firms to work hand-in-hand with government agencies to break encryption and provide easy access to customer data under court order. “We believe it would be wrong to weaken security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding customers so that it will also be weaker for the very few who pose a threat,” said Apple in a complaint filed against the Investigatory Powers Bill. For all its efforts to stop efforts in the UK to break down encryption walls and bend over for law enforcement, a new Chinese law looks to simply steamroll tech companies. Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the Chinese government has passed a law...
Read more...
With its Windows OS, Microsoft is likely the biggest victim of piracy on Earth, and it's no secret that China plays a major role in that. But, so too do other issues, such as the Chinese government's distaste or distrust of American companies. This ties into the reason that China is working to get its own CPU off the ground, as well as its own OS. Microsoft realizes this problem well, but can't ignore the huge potential of penetrating the Chinese government market. So it has decided to go out of its comfort zone to cater to the Chinese government's requirements. It's doing so by establishing a new company called C&M Information Technologies in Beijing, which will act as a bit of a proxy between...
Read more...
Earlier today, Apple made some big moves in its executive ranks with a wave of promotions and new hire. But tonight, Apple announced what could possibly be its most important business deal so far this year, and one that could be extremely lucrative for the electronics company that is deriving a large portion of its revenue from the Chinese market. Apple has reached an agreement with China UnionPay, which will allow cardholders to add their bank cards to Apple Pay. What makes this such a blockbuster deal is that China UnionPay currently operates nation's inter-bank clearing and settlement system and has issued over 5 billion cards both domestically and abroad. UnionPay cards are accepted at 26...
Read more...
It seems like we keep repeating ourselves, but Apple has posted yet another record quarter thanks to strong iPhone sales. Apple reported record fiscal Q4 revenue of $51.5 billion and net profit of $11.1 billion. These figures were up substantially from the same period last year, when earnings and net profit came in at $42.1 billion and $8.5 billion respectively. And that wasn’t all; gross margins also ticked up slightly from 38 percent to 39.9 percent and Apple’s international business continues to improve by leaps and bounds, now accounting for a whopping 62 percent of its quarterly revenue. Moving specially to Apple’s product portfolio, iPhone sales increased by 22 percent year-over-year, while...
Read more...
For the first time ever, Huawei is China's largest smartphone player, having surged to the top spot to replace Xiaomi in the third quarter of 2015, according to data presented by market research firm Canalys. Huawei's ascension to the top was fueled by a staggering 81 percent year-on-year shipment growth. Meanwhile, Xiaomi saw its phone shipments slide 8 percent in the third quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal, which read the full report by Canalys (it hasn't yet been published). That caused Xiaomi to slip into second place in China's smartphone market, though Canalys hasn't disclosed specific market share data. If looking back at the second quarter, Xiaomi held a slim lead over Huawei...
Read more...
Following the philosophy that it's sometimes better to ask for forgiveness than for permission, a Chinese mobile advertising firm wants Apple and iOS users to know it's sorry for running afoul of Apple's App Store rules by sneakily plucking user data through hundreds of mobile apps that have been downloaded over a million times.Guangzhou Youmi Mobile Technology Co. (Youmi from here on out) was caught collecting email addresses, device IDs, and other private information through more than 250 apps built with a software development kit (SDK) it offers to developers. The developers may not have even known what was going on.How so? Affected apps were using what's called a private application programming...
Read more...
This past June, on a day when Apple had a number of big announcements - such as OS X 'El Capitan', the much-expected launch of Apple Music, and the announcement of WatchOS 2 - the company also revealed a new app for the iPhone and iPad that it hopes will redefine how people read their news. The aptly named News app lets people catch up on their news by browsing through automatically curated stories presented in a magazine format. Overall, a simple, but neat app. But despite its simplicity, this is one app that Apple has to be careful with. Because of its ability to automatically pull in stories that might interest you, certain governments might have an issue with it. China being a great example,...
Read more...
Microsoft really wants you to use Bing. The company makes Bing a focal point of its new Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile operating system and even pays customers to use its search engine with Bing Rewards. The company has even received some flak for making Bing the default search engine in Windows 10 if they choose the Express upgrade options, since this overrode the user’s previous default search option. Bing has roughly 20 percent of the U.S. search engine market, and a little less than 11 percent of the global search engine market. In an effort to push Windows 10 growth in China, Microsoft’s isn’t going to try to force Bing upon users. Instead, it has teamed up with Chinese giant Baidu, making...
Read more...
Michael Dell is no longer beholden to shareholders after taking the computer company he founded private two years ago. As such, he's free to invest more than $125 billion in China over the next five years as part of his "In China, For China" 4.0 strategy announced today without having to worry about how it might affect the company's stock price. The massive investment will continue to expand and enhance Dell's research and development team in China, Dell's second largest market for PC sales. It will also contribute some $175 million to imports and exports, which in turn will sustain more than 1 million jobs in the country. "China and the United States are among the countries where the information...
Read more...
At least one market research firm believes that China, the biggest country for smartphone sales, has reached saturation. As a result, worldwide smartphone sales grew 13.5 percent year-over-year, the slowest growth rate since 2013, with units totaling 330 million in the second quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. That's despite new smartphone launches from both Apple and Samsung. China accounted for nearly a third -- 30 percent -- of all smartphone sales in the second quarter. However, the market in China is largely driven by replacement handsets rather than first-time buyers, Gartner says. With China reaching saturation, smartphone sales in the region fell 4 percent year-over-year, marking...
Read more...
It looks as though the U.S. Government just can’t catch a break when it comes to cybersecurity issues. If it isn’t China that’s breaching the Office of Personal Management (OPM), accessing the personnel files of 21.5 million people, then the U.S. has to keep an eye for hackers originating from Russia. The latter is pegged as the source for the recent cyberattack on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff email system. If there’s any silver lining to today’s news, it’s that the email system contained “unclassified” information. The cyberattack, which occurred on July 25, affected around 4,000 military personnel that work for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The email system has been offline since the breach...
Read more...
China is finally ending a ban on gaming consoles that has proven to be a real hindrance to companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. But before you ask, “I thought China already lifted the ban?” you have to realize that Chinese regulatory agencies only allowed consoles to be sold within the country if they were manufactured within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Now that Chinese officials have had a change of heart, manufacturers (both foreign and domestic) are free to build and sell their consoles anywhere within the country. Needless to say, console manufacturers are elated at the possibility of tapping into the Chinese gaming market without being stymied by miles of bureaucratic red tape....
Read more...
Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., a Chinese state-owned semiconductor design firm, is reportedly making a play to acquire Micron Technology Inc. for $23 billion. Should the transaction ultimately happen, there would be no more U.S. memory makers left standing. However, there are several hurdles that stand in the way of the transaction, including the purchase price. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal says Tsinghua Unigroup is trying to acquire Micron for $21 per share. That represents a more than 19 percent premium over Micron's stock price at the time the story broke, and though that seems attractive at a glance, it's also around 21 percent below Micron's 100-day moving average...
Read more...
