The Flagship America Can't Have

It’s been quite a while since Huawei were driven out of most global markets by losing out on Google’s services and apps, with market share plummeting in numerous regions as a result. 

However, as the company continue to innovate and dominate sales back home in China, it turns out that Americans wish they could still purchase and use Huawei phones as well. 

Despite a strict US government ban preventing their devices from being sold through official channels, Huawei recently emerged as the top choice for American tech enthusiasts. In a major industry poll conducted by the mobile technology publication ⁠PhoneArena, asking which Chinese smartphone brand consumers would most like to see properly enter the United States with full carrier support, Huawei led the vote with nearly 31 percent of the total selection. 

This strong showing highlights a deep, ongoing demand among premium Android users for the brand's hardware innovation, even as the broader landscape of international smartphone options shrinks. 

This suggests that Americans not only still miss the company but would be willing to give up Google’s services and accept Huawei’s HarmonyOS as well. Huawei have been pushing out some crazy powerful devices with very unique designs and gimmicks, and you want to get your hands on them. 

Getting a Chinese smartphone in the US is a gargantuan hassle, and no channels exist to purchase one like you would a Samsung, Google Pixel, or Apple phone. Most people who do use Chinese phones in the US get an unlocked model and have to use workarounds to have an almost normal experience. 

But from the said reader poll, we now know how much Americans want access to other Chinese brands after Huawei. In second place is Oppo, with a little over 23 percent of respondents wishing that it would be sold stateside. 

Xiaomi followed with 22 percent of the votes, as the company have been pumping out some excellent smartphones in the last few years with spectacular specs and great ideas like a second display on the rear. 

Meanwhile, a little under 12 percent want Vivo to take on Samsung, Google, and Apple in the US. iQOO got over seven percent of the votes and Realme came last with a little under five percent of you wanting it to operate normally in the States. 

Malaysian women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan secured their first semi-final appearance since the All England in March with a hard-earned victory at the Taipei Open yesterday. 

The world No. 5 had to work hard for their 21-14, 21-17 win over Taiwan's world No. 39 Lin Chih Chun-Yang Chu Yun in the quarter-finals.

The important thing is they won! 💪💪💪

But young women's doubles pair Low Zi Yu-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan's brave run came to an end. The world No. 67 suffered a 21-11, 20-22, 22-24 heartbreak to Thailand's world No. 36 Hathaithip Mijad-Napapakorn Tungkasatan after a titanic battle. 😞😞😞

Huawei Reveal Kirin Chip Inside 5G Smartphones

Huawei Technologies have revealed that the new Pura 80 handsets are powered by their Kirin 9020 system-on-a-chip. 

This marks the first time in about five years that the US-sanctioned company have lifted the veil of secrecy behind their advanced smartphone processors. The name of Huawei’s chipset, which was designed by semiconductor design subsidiary HiSilicon, was found prominently displayed in screenshots shared online by Pura 80 users after a system update of the handset. 

Information about the processors used by Huawei on 5G smartphones, including the Mate 60 Pro and Mate 70 series, was previously uncovered only via third-party teardown analyses, without any official confirmation from the Shenzhen-based company. 

Privately held Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Huawei’s Kirin 9020 reveal reflected the firm’s confidence in their silicon design capabilities and their strong comeback in the 5G smartphone market, despite rigid US tech restrictions on China. 

The Kirin 9020, first seen in Huawei’s Mate 70 smartphones last year, was made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) using the advanced 7-nanometre production process, according to a report by Canadian research firm TechInsights published in December. 

The chipset was “not a dramatic redesign but rather an incremental improvement over its predecessor, the Kirin 9010”, TechInsights said. 

In 2023, a TechInsights teardown analysis found that SMIC, mainland China’s largest contract chipmaker, was behind the Kirin processor inside the Mate 60 Pro, the model that helped drive Huawei’s comeback in the 5G smartphone market. 

Before that, the Mate 40 series, released in October 2020, was the last 5G smartphone line released by Huawei, more than a year after it was blacklisted by the US.

Yesterday, listless Celtic were held to a goalless home draw by Kazakh side FC Kairat in the first leg of Champions League play-off. 

The green-and-white stripers laboured to leave hopes of qualifying for league phase in the balance. And they face Livingston in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday before embarking on a 7,000-mile round trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the return leg on Tuesday.

24/7 Automation Without Limits

Innovation in robotics continues to push the boundaries of what is possible, with the latest breakthrough coming from China’s UBTech.

In a groundbreaking development poised to redefine industrial automation, UBTech in partnership with Huawei Technologies unveiled the Walker S2, a humanoid robot designed to revolutionize industrial operations through its ability to autonomously swap its own battery in three minutes. 

Not only does it enhance productivity but also reduces the need for human intervention, streamlining operations and cutting labor costs. 

This cutting-edge technology enables the Walker S2 to perform continuous, uninterrupted work 24/7 in dynamic industrial environments. 

By introducing such an innovative solution, UBTech has set a new standard for automation, highlighting the potential for robots to handle more complex and demanding tasks in the future.

As companies continue to explore the possibilities of automation, the demand for advanced robots like the Walker S2 is likely to grow. This trend raises important questions about the future of work and the role of robotics in society. How will businesses adapt to this new era of automation, and what impact will it have on the workforce? As we look to the future, these questions remain at the forefront of discussions about the role of technology in shaping our world.

Apple's Plan to Move iPhone Assembly to India from China Unrealistic.

As Apple grapples with US President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China, they have laid out plans to move to Indian assembly of the majority of iPhones they sell in the US by the end of 2026, a move that would double their current output from the South Asian nation and away from China. 

Eighty percent of the 60 million iPhones sold in the US are produced in China and this proposed shift is a key step that would help them mitigate some of the costs they face amid rising tariffs on China. 

But leading analyst Craig Moffett suggests any plans to migrate US iPhone assembly to India is unrealistic. Moffett, ranked as a top analyst multiple times by Institutional Investor, sent a memo to clients on Friday after the Financial Times reported on Apple's said strategy. He’s questioning how a move could bring down costs tied to tariffs because the iPhone components would still be made in China.

“You have a tremendous menu of problems created by tariffs, and moving to India doesn’t solve all the problems. Now granted, it helps to some degree”, the MoffettNathanson partner and senior managing director told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “I would question how that’s going to work”. 

For sure, the switch in production will cost Apple. According to a Reuters report citing an unnamed source, manufacturing iPhones in India is 5-8 percent more expensive than in China. 

“India will help, but it’s not moving the needle on China’s dependence for Apple. It will take years to make this move, as Apple is caught in the tariff storm”, Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, pointed out.

And Moffett contends that it’s not so easy to diversify to India – telling clients Apple’s supply chain would still be anchored in China and would likely face resistance. 

“The bottom line is a global trade war is a two-front battle, impacting costs and sales. Moving assembly to India might (and we emphasize might) help with the former. The latter may ultimately be the bigger issue”, he wrote to clients. 

Moffett cut his Apple price target on Monday to $141 from $184 a share. It implies a 33% drop from Friday’s close. The price target is also the Street low, according to FactSet. 

“I don’t think of myself as the biggest Apple bear”, he said. “I think quite highly of Apple. My concern about Apple has been the valuation more than the company”. Moffett has had a “sell” rating on Apple since January 07. Since then, the company’s shares are down about 14%. “None of this is because Apple is a bad company. They still have a great balance sheet [and] a great consumer franchise”, he said. “It’s just the reality of there are no good answers when you are a product company, and your products are going to be significantly tariffed, and you’re heading into a market that is likely to have at least some deceleration in consumer demand because of the macro economy”. 

Moffett notes Apple also aren’t getting help from their carriers to cushion the blow of tariffs.

“You also have the demand destruction that’s created by potentially higher prices. Remember, you had AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile all this week come out and say we’re not going to underwrite the additional cost of tariff [on] handset”, he added. “The consumer is going to have to pay for that. So, you’re going to have some demand destruction that’s going to show up in even longer holding periods and slower upgrade rates – all of which probably trims estimates [in] next year’s consensus”.

According to Moffett, the backlash against Apple in China over US tariffs will also hurt iPhone sales. 

“It’s a very real problem”, Moffett said. “Volumes are really going to the Huaweis and the Vivos and the local competitors in China rather than to Apple”. 

Apple stock is coming off a winning week – up more than 6%. It comes ahead of the iPhone maker’s quarterly earnings report due Thursday after the market close.

Chinese Chipmakers and Cloud Providers Embrace DeepSeek

Chinese companies, from chipmakers to cloud service providers, are rushing to support DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) models, spurring analysts to even hail it a “watershed moment” for the industry. 

Chinese AI chipmakers – including Moore Threads, Tencent-backed Enflame, Baidu’s Kunlunxin and Hygon Information Technology, have declared that their computing clusters and accelerators would be able to support DeepSeek’s R1 and V3 models. 

“We pay tribute to DeepSeek”, Moore Threads headlined their post on WeChat, adding that progress by the firm’s models using domestically made graphic processing units could “set on fire” China’s AI industry. 

On February 01, Huawei Technologies, which also have their own line of AI chips, said they were working with AI infrastructure start-up SiliconFlow to make DeepSeek’s models available to customers on their Ascend cloud service. Their performance was comparable to models run on global, high-end chips, they added. 

“DeepSeek demonstrates that competitive large language models can be deployed on China’s ‘good-enough’ chips, easing reliance on cutting-edge US hardware”, Bernstein analysts said in a note on February 02, citing Ascend and planned chips from Cambricon and Hygon. 

The cloud arms of China’s biggest internet companies – Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent – also said they have made DeepSeek’s models accessible via their services. 

China has welcomed DeepSeek’s success, turning the start-up based in the eastern city of Hangzhou and the firm’s founder Liang Wenfeng (right) into pop culture celebrities. 

In fact, Microsoft and Amazon’s cloud services have also started offering DeepSeek’s models – but already, there are countries such Australia, Italy and the Netherlands which have blocked, or are investigating, DeepSeek’s AI app on concerns of privacy.

Huawei Unveil Mate 70 With Homegrown OS

Chinese tech giant Huawei on Tuesday unveiled their first smartphone equipped with a fully homegrown operating system, a key test in the firm’s fight to challenge the dominance of Western juggernauts. 

 

Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are currently used in the vast majority of mobile phones – but Huawei are looking to change that with their newest Mate 70 devices, which run on the company’s own HarmonyOS Next. 

 

The launch caps a major turnaround in the fortunes of Huawei, which saw their wings badly clipped by gruelling US sanctions in recent years but have since bounced back with soaring sales. 

 

And unlike their triple-folding phone, the Mate XT, priced at an eye-watering $2,800, which made it three times the cost of the newest iPhone, the Mate 70 has a much lower starting price of 5,499 yuan ($757.60). Pre-orders began on November 18 and over 3.34 million reservations were placed as of 06:00 PM on Tuesday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

 

In any case, the risks remain high – unlike a previous iteration, based on Android’s open-source code, HarmonyOS Next requires a complete rewiring of all apps on the smartphones it powers. 

 

“It is unclear whether developers overseas will be willing to spend the money needed to build a completely new version of their apps for the latest smartphones”, said Rich Bishop, co-founder and CEO of AppInChina, a publisher of international software in China. 

 

“One third-party agency in China quoted a price of two million yuan ($275,500) to custom-fit a foreign app for HarmonyOS Next”, he told AFP. 

 

To convince them, “Huawei need to continuously improve the software, provide better support for developers, and convince the developer community that (they are) committed to the long-term development of the Harmony ecosystem”, Paul Triolo, a partner at consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group, told AFP.

Most Powerful Mate 70 Smartphone To Launch This Month

News of the upcoming launch of Huawei's Mate 70 series smartphones quickly became a trending topic on Weibo on Monday, with consumers eagerly anticipating the integration of cutting-edge innovations. 

 

Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director, said on the Chinese social media platform that the company are set to launch "the most powerful Mate in history" in November. The post didn't reveal any further details about the smartphone. 

 

Yu's remarks quickly sparked widespread enthusiasm among consumers. "Only the Mate can surpass the Mate", a netizen commented under Yu's post. "Huawei once again touted Mate as 'the most powerful ever', raising expectations even higher", another netizen said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The market expects the new phone to feature the latest HarmonyOS NEXT – Huawei's recently launched operating system widely reported as the first fully homegrown mobile operating system in China. 

 

I was back in Kajang, Selangor on Saturday for the Kajang Toastmasters Club meeting. This time around, the venue was at Koffie Lane at 21, Jalan Prima Saujana 2/1A, Taman Prima Saujana.

 

Incidentally, Ahmad Fakhri was the Table Topics Master and as he eloquently put it: Where Off-the-Cuff Meets Out-of-the-Box!

 

And I was tasked to be the Grammarian. The WOD was "optimism".

 

 

 

 

Ford CEO Loves His Xiaomi SU7

In a story for the Wall Street Journal last month profiling Ford CEO Jim Farley, the Blue Oval figurehead recounted a story that motivated his current aggressive electric vehicle game plan* involving a team of California-based engineers he dubs the company's "Skunk Works".

 

[*Ford have decided to dial back their bigger plans for their electric line-up. Initial plans to develop three-row electric crossovers have been scrapped, and in their place is a focus on vehicles they feel will sell better – three-row hybrid SUVs in the same flavor as their popular Explorer family haulers].  

 

During a trip to China in 2023, he and Ford CFO John Lawler got a taste of their Chinese contemporaries when they visited Ford's partner in China, Changan Automotive.

 

According to WSJ, the duo test-drove an electric SUV made by Changan, the conclusion of which prompted the executives to sit "silently, stunned at the progress Changan had made". 

 

“Jim, this is nothing like before”, Lawler reportedly told Farley after the test drive. “These guys are ahead of us”. 

 

Despite his characterization of Chinese electric OEMs as an "existential threat" to their Western contemporaries, Jim Farley (right) admitted something that sounds as a betrayal to loyal, patriotic American car enthusiasts. 

 

During a recent appearance on the Fully Charged Show podcast, the Ford CEO admitted that he has not only been driving the competition but also enjoying every minute of it. 

 

Around 21 minutes into the podcast, Farley began talking about Xiaomi, the consumer electronics brand that recently had a hit with its foray into EVs with the best-selling SU7 sedan. To the surprise of the host, Robert Llewellyn, Farley noted that it isn't unusual for electronics companies to make cars. 

 

"In the West, our cell phone companies are not into cars; they don't have car companies", Farley explained, as the host listened in surprise. "But in China, both Huawei and Xiaomi, the two biggest cell phone companies, are inside of every vehicle that is made".

 

The Ford CEO then described Xiaomi as "an industry juggernaut", noting that the company are able to sell tens of thousands of SU7s per month and have accumulated a six-month waiting list. However, one of these "satisfied customers" is Jim Farley himself! 

 

Although the car isn't officially for sale in the United States, Ford shipped one stateside for research and development. As far as Farley's testimony goes, he seems to be getting anecdotal experiences that go beyond traditional benchmark testing. 

 

“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi”, Farley confessed. “We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now, and I don’t want to give it up”.

Huawei's Trifold Phone

China's Huawei are first to market the trifold phone, the Mate XT. 

 

It is already open for pre-order while the official sale will hit on September 20. 

 

The pricing is stiff though: Mate XT Ultimate Design (16GB + 256GB) – 19,999 yuan ($2,813.87); Mate XT Ultimate Design (16GB + 512GB) – 21,999 yuan ($3,095.27); and Mate XT Ultimate Design (16GB + 1TB) – 23,999 yuan ($3,376.72).

 

On the outside, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design has a 50-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), and a variable aperture that ranges between f/1.2 and f/4.0. It also features a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 5.5x optical zoom, OIS and an f/3.4 aperture. For selfies and video calls, there's an 8-megapixel camera on the smartphone's display, housed in a center-aligned hole-punch cutout.

 

With two folds, it transforms from a smartphone into a 10.2-inch tablet. 

 

Huawei let you turn their triple foldable into a regular phone, tablet, or even a mini PC. The single screen enables users to manage things with one hand. The dual-screen mode is perfect for browsing or clear reading, while the third screen will enlarge things. 

 

Malaysian women's pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan advanced to the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open after defeating homesters Lui Lok Lok-Tsang Hiu Yan in the second round yesterday.

 

The third seeds did not face much resistance from the world No. 102 Hong Kong pair, taking only 30 minutes to win 21-16, 21-14.

 

World No. 8 Pearly-Thinaah will face Indonesia's Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi in the quarter-finals.

Shenzhou-18 is Successfully Launched

 

 

 

 

 

 

China embarked on its thirty-second mission since the initiation of the country's manned space project. The Shenzhou-18 manned spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, atop the Long March-2F Y18 carrier rocket on Thursday, carrying taikonauts Li Guangsu, Ye Guangfu and Li Cong and fish... yes, you read it right, fish!

Zebrafish (Scientific name: Danio rerio) are the chosen ones to make it into space and are dubbed adorably by Chinese netizens as "the fourth crew member of Shenzhou-18". 

The selection of the popular aquarium fish is not just because zebrafish are beautiful, but also because they are well-known "model organisms" in the scientific community. They have advantages such as small size, short development cycle, and short experimental period. 

What's more, zebrafish eggs are transparent, making it easy for researchers to observe the process of embryonic development. More importantly, zebrafish share 87 percent genetic similarity with humans, making them suitable for studying and revealing universal principles of life forms. 

And together with hornwot (Scientific name: Ceratophyllum demersum), a free-floating water plant, they are both part of an experiment that is China's first in-orbit aquatic ecological research project.

As manned missions to Tiangong have become normalized, more than 90 experiments (besides the one mentioned above), e.g., microgravity, space materials science, space life science, aerospace medicine, and aerospace technology, are scheduled to be carried out in and outside of the space station during Shenzhou-18's six-month stay. 

 

 

Huawei launched the Pura 70 series of smartphones devices – Pura 70, Pura 70 Pro, Pura 70 Pro Plus and Pura 70 Ultra, according to Huawei’s official website – on April 18 in a bid to continue their resurgence in China and ramp up their regional challenge to Apple.

It’s the latest sign of growing confidence from Huawei, after the company last year quietly launched their Mate 60 smartphone, which sported a high-end chip. 

Huawei packed the devices with premium smartphone features. The back of the phone has a textured covering, while the Ultra version of the gear has a 6.8-inch screen. All of the new phone offerings are equipped with cameras that are a triple-lens setup, with features including long-range zoom and the ability to capture images of objects moving at speed. 

The Pura 70 series also runs HarmonyOS 4.2, Huawei’s proprietary operating system which they first released in 2019 after US sanctions cut them off from Google’s Android.

It is expected that the new phones contain more locally-sourced components than any of the company's previous phones.

iPhone Sales Nosedive in China

My blog post "Apple's iPhone Sales Plummet in China by 24%", published March 06, 2024 looked at sales in the first 6 weeks of this year. 

Counterpoint Research have now reported that Apple’s smartphone sales in China in the first quarter of 2024 dropped 19% due to increased competition from local brands.

The US tech giant fell to third place in the hotly contested market amid pressure from fast-rising rival Huawei, the researcher said on Tuesday. 

Shenzhen-based Huawei saw sales of their smartphones soar a whopping 69.7% in the first quarter, making them the fourth-largest smartphone maker in China.

Overall, China’s smartphone market expanded about 1.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, marking the second quarter of positive growth for the industry. Vivo became the top smartphone vendor in China during the quarter with a 17.4% share, driven by strong sales of the Y35 Plus and Y36 models in the low-end segment and the S18 in the mid-end segment. Honor ranked second with a 16.1% share, followed by Apple with a 15.7% share.

“Apple’s sales were subdued during the quarter as Huawei’s comeback has directly impacted Apple in the premium segment”, senior Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam explained. “Besides, the replacement demand for Apple has been slightly subdued compared to previous years”. 

The sales decline highlights the challenges Apple faces in their third-largest market, where some Chinese companies and government entities bar the use of their devices in retaliation to US restrictions on Chinese apps for supposed security reasons.

Analysts anticipate increased pressure on Apple’s sales in 2024. Research firm IDC previously warned that the US tech giant’s presence in China has been dented by rival products and limited product upgrades by Apple, which has reduced the overall attractiveness of iPhones. 

Apple, once the world’s most valuable company, have seen their shares fall 14% this year, underperforming the overall market. Their market valuation is still $2.56 trillion, second only to Microsoft Corporation.

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development have raised their 2024 forecast for the country’s growth, citing domestic consumer and investment demand. 

Gross domestic product will expand by 2.8% this year, Economy Minister Maksim Reshetnikov announced yesterday. This compares favorably with the previous forecast of 2.3% GDP for 2024. The International Monetary Fund, however, expect Russia to grow 3.2% this year (refer my post "Russia To Grow Faster Than All Advanced Economies" published April 17, 2024).

Whether 2.8% or 3.2%, Russia's wartime economy is primed to grow despite the avalanche of sanctions!

Boeing United Airlines Flight Loses Panel Mid-air

In the US, yet another plane mishap! 

 

A United Airlines plane – obviously a Boeing 😂😂 – had to be grounded Friday. It was found to be missing an external panel after it touched down following a flight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plane is a Boeing 737-824 carrying 139 passengers, and successfully touched down in Medford Airport in Oregon despite the missing part. No injuries were reported, Jackson County Airport Director Amber Judd said, adding the flight had originated from San Francisco, California. 

 

It is revealed that it was the wing-to-body fairing that ripped off – a part that is located on the underside of the aircraft where the wing meets the aircraft body. The panel sits just adjacent to where the landing gear deploys, and serves as a protective shell between the wing and the fuselage.

 

The incident – the latest from the embattled manufacturer – occurred Monday, and is the sixth involving a Boeing plane in 10 days. Judd further clarified the part fell off mid-flight, as feds continue to look into Boeing's production practices.

 

It is becoming an irrefutable fact the US cannot compete with China and so, they manufacture the excuse of a national security threat to stonewall, stymie and stop the Chinese! The Americans are shameless!

 

 

Apple's iPhone Sales Plummet in China by 24%

Apple's iPhone sales plummeted 24% in mainland China and market share dropped to 4th after Vivo, Huawei, and Honor.

According to the report by research firm Counterpoint, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market dropped from 19% to 15.7% in the first 6 weeks of 2024. Meanwhile, Huawei, saw unit sales rise by 64% in the period and rose to 2nd place as its market share expanded from 9.4% to 16.5%. 

Counterpoint said Huawei benefited from strong demand for their flagship 5G-capable Mate 60 series, launched late last year with a powerful home-grown chip, the Kirin 9000S. Chinese netizens have hailed the smartphone as symbolic of China’s ability to defy tough US sanctions. 

Some analysts say Apple have been slow to adopt generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools into their devices compared with domestic brands, as competition intensifies in the high-end market segment.

And Apple know a slowdown in demand in China could affect their revenue which already disappointed investors when the firm released their earnings last month. The firm said sales in China were $20.82 billion in the last three months of 2023, down from $23.9 billion in the previous year.

Malaysia's Low Wee Wern is off to a new adventure in her squash career.

She is embracing a new role as the chief coach of the Philippines team, marking a historic milestone as the first female to hold such a position for a country. The 33-year-old officially signed a one-year contract in Manila yesterday.

 

Huawei's Move to Totally Abandon Android

Huawei have hinted a major release of their HarmonyOS that will see the Chinese giant break with the Linux ecosystem. 

 

HarmonyOS was launched in 2019 – initially as an OS for IoT devices, but later adapted to run on smartphones and other hardware. Huawei suggested the OS could run on their wearables, tablet computers, smartphones, and smart TVs, and offer a unified experience across all. That's a lot like the sort of thing Google can deliver with Android, with which HarmonyOS was compatible. 

 

But between the geopolitical difficulties of cross-border tech transfers, and a desire to build the best possible offering, through 2023, Huawei indicated that they would build a version of HarmonyOS that broke with the Android ecosystem – even if that meant pain for developers and users.

 

Last week, Huawei launched that Android-free offering: HarmonyOS Next. And they claimed they've also created the kernel to power it – meaning Huawei have divorced themselves from both Android and Linux. 

 

Huawei are committed to seeing HarmonyOS Next making a debut for consumers in Q4 of 2024, and that by then they will have trained millions of developers and secured thousands of native apps to run on the OS. A version for developers has been promised for imminent release. 

 

In sessions for developers, Huawei detailed the innards of the OS and how it will ship with all the basic apps and services consumers will expect – stuff like maps, photo management, and a calculator – and the developer tools they've created. 

 

Huawei have also developed an "open" version of HarmonyOS Next – presumably in the hope that third parties might consider the OS to power their own devices. The developer push and possible OEM adoption of HarmonyOS Next are as significant as the software itself. 

 

If Huawei can develop an ecosystem of third-party players, they could create a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly. 

 

Huawei's revived smartphone range has been hailed as a patriotic alternative for Chinese buyers. Yet even a couple of hundred million Huawei devices running HarmonyOS Next would not be a significant challenge to Apple and Google outside China. Nor would other Chinese handset-makers adopting the OS necessarily make a difference. 

 

Recall that Microsoft signed up the likes of HTC, LG, and Samsung to build Windows Phone handsets, but couldn't crack the market. Only Samsung remains a force in the handset market – and it's all-in on Android.

 

That may be so, but I don't think anybody should underestimate Huawei!

Apple Offer Rare iPhone Discounts in China

Apple are offering temporary discounts on their iPhones and other products in China. An extremely rare move for Apple that comes as competition within Asia’s smartphone market grows more intense. 

 

As part of a sale pegged to the Lunar New Year event, Apple’s official Chinese website is listing discounts of up to 500 RMB ($70) on the latest iPhone lineup. Other flagship Apple products, including the Mac and iPad, are also going to be discounted up to 800 RMB ($112) and 400 RMB ($56), respectively, as part of the promotion, which runs from January 18 through January 21. 

 

Although third-party sellers at times discount Apple products, Apple themselves very rarely offer deals or sales, part of their effort to maintain a premium brand image – something that has been particularly important as Apple seek to attract high-end buyers in China. 

 

The move to slash prices on the iPhone comes just over five months after Chinese tech giant Huawei released their latest smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro. The Huawei smartphone has been eagerly embraced by Chinese consumers – so much that its use of an advanced chip has come under scrutiny from US officials. 

 

The new discounts on the iPhone in China are raising fresh questions about how demand for Apple products is faring recently in the world’s second-largest economy. China has long been a key market for the iPhone maker, with roughly one-fifth of Apple’s overall sales last year coming from China. 

 

Sales for the iPhone 15 were down 4.5% in China compared to iPhone 14 sales in the first two weeks after its launch in September, according to Counterpoint Research. And last week, Jefferies Research in a note to clients said iPhone sales had tumbled 30% in the first week of the year, Reuters reported. 

 

Still, China is one of Apple’s most important markets. And it is second-largest in sales, behind only the North American market. Therefore, Apple can ill afford to continue dropping sales.

China Bans Japan, Turns to Russia for Seafood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China became the main buyer of fish products from Russia, having tripled its imports on an annual basis to over 1.3 million tons last year. 

 

The surge in Russian deliveries to China comes after Beijing imposed a ban on imports of all seafood from Japan in response to Tokyo’s discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean in August 2023. [Refer to my three posts on the said subject, dated August 25, October 07 and November 03, 2023].

 

Russia’s seafood exports from the fish-rich Far Eastern Primorsky and Sakhalin regions surged by over 70% last year, data published by the Russian regulator responsible for food safety, Rosselkhoznadzor, showed on Thursday. The regions exported nearly 2 million tons of seafood last year, a 72% increase compared to 2022, according to the report. 

 

Microsoft overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company for the first time in more than two years, as worries over smartphone demand have weighed on the iPhone-maker’s stock in recent weeks. 

 

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant rose 1% to $388.47 on Friday, ending with a market valuation of $2.89 trillion. Meanwhile, Apple gained 0.2% and closed with a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion. It’s the first time since November 2021 that Microsoft has closed with a higher value than Apple. 

 

While both were part of the so-called Magnificent 7’s powerful rally in 2023, their fortunes have diverged this year. Microsoft have risen 3.3%, supported by ongoing optimism over artificial intelligence, while Apple have dropped 3.4% amid rising concerns over their growth. They have been hit by at least three analyst ratings downgrades as concerns over weakness in iPhone sales, especially in the key Chinese market. Analysts pointed to competition from a resurgent Huawei and growing tensions between Washington and Beijing that have increased pressure on Apple.

 

Wall Street’s less-favorable view on Apple suggests it would not be surprising if Microsoft maintained or even built on their newfound size advantage. The average analyst price target for Microsoft equates to upside of about 8% over the coming 12 months, slightly above Apple’s return potential. Such a gain would result in Microsoft topping $3 trillion in market valuation, joining Apple as one of only two companies to hit such a threshold.

Xiaomi Launch Home-grown Cross-device System with HyperOS

Smartphone and gadget giant Xiaomi Corp have become the latest Chinese industry player to unveil a unified operating system for their mobile devices, cars and Internet-connected home products, as US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies work towards liberating their own integrated OS completely from Google’s Android. 

 

Xiaomi described HyperOS, their recently introduced OS, as a combination of a highly customised Android system and the company’s proprietary Internet of Things (IoT) platform Vela, launched three years ago to support a range of smart devices from wristbands and smartwatches to speakers, home appliances and sensors. The Beijing-based firm touted HyperOS as a “human-centric” OS that is a culmination of efforts to bring their vast and expanding product portfolio under the roof of one single OS for centralised and easier management. 

 

HyperOS will come pre-installed on the latest Xiaomi 14 smartphone series, as well as devices launched in the mainland Chinese market, such as smartwatches and televisions, the company said.

 

Xiaomi are not the only Chinese company that have taken a shot at developing a home-grown OS. Huawei Technologies, one of the first domestic handset makers to make such an attempt, are now preparing a bolder move to launch HarmonyOS Next. 

 

Huawei have confirmed that HarmonyOS NEXT will commence official developer beta activities in early 2024, followed by closed and public beta tests before the full public release. 

 

The Next system is Huawei’s attempt to sever their ties with the Android ecosystem by removing support for Android apps on Huawei devices equipped with their new OS. HarmonyOS was launched in August 2019, several months after the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to their Entity List that barred the Shenzhen-based telecoms titan from buying technologies from American companies – including Google apps and services – without Washington’s approval.

 

While the Android Open Source Project is still free for anyone to use, Huawei have been pushing through with efforts to expand the use of HarmonyOS, which was first released on a smart television, to all their IoT and personal devices. But to soften the blow to users, Huawei – which were briefly the world’s top-selling smartphone brand before US trade sanctions decimated their international handset business – have so far allowed Android apps to run on HarmonyOS devices.

 

Android held a roughly 70 percent share of the global mobile OS market in September, according to data service StatCounter, while HarmonyOS had a negligible share.

 

Still, Huawei appear ready to move forward. 

 

“HarmonyOS had four rough years. Looking back now, the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains”, Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, said at a launch event for HarmonyOS 4 in September, citing a famous line written by ancient Chinese poet Li Bai. 

 

Today, more than 700 million devices run on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers creating apps for the system, according to Yu. 

 

Meanwhile, other Chinese smartphone manufacturers continue to build their customised OS on the open-source Android. They include Oppo’s ColorOS and Vivo’s OriginOS.