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. 😞😞😞

Google an Illegal Monopoly over Internet Search, US Judge Rules

A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to smash its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. 

 

The landmark decision on Monday is a major blow to Alphabet, Google's parent company, and could reshape how technology giants do business. Google was sued by the US Department of Justice in 2020 over its control of 90% of the online search market.

 

This case has at times been described as posing an existential threat to Google and its owner given its dominance of the search and online advertising business. It is unclear yet what penalties Google and Alphabet will face as a result of the decision. The fines or other remedies will be decided in a future hearing. 

 

The government have asked for "structural relief" – which could, in theory at least, mean the break-up of the company.

 

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly”, Judge Amil Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion. 

 

Alphabet said they plan to appeal against the ruling. “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available", the statement from the company said. 

 

Federal antitrust regulators have filed other pending lawsuits against Big Tech companies – including Meta Platforms, which own Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple Inc – accusing them of operating unlawful monopolies. 

 

Monday's ruling comes after a 10-week trial in Washington DC, in which prosecutors accused Google of spending billions of dollars annually to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others to be pre-installed as the default search engine across platforms. The US said Google typically pays more than $10 billion a year for that privilege, securing its access to a steady stream of user data that helped maintain its hold on the market. Doing so, prosecutors said, meant other companies have not had the opportunity or resources to meaningfully compete.

 

In his ruling, Judge Mehta concluded that being the default search engine is "extremely valuable real estate" for Google. Very true!

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!

A Feisty Tiger in KL

It’s the Year of the Tiger, so don’t be too surprised to see a tiger ready to pounce on you just outside of Pavilion Elite, Kuala Lumpur. 

Well, it’s all thanks to Samsung‘s “Tiger In The City” campaign to help get ready for Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2022. And KLites would be happy to know their city is amongst five cities in the world chosen to showcase the ad. 

Besides Kuala Lumpur, the other four cities to showcase the billboard of the tiger are New York, London, Dubai, and Seoul.

The ad shows a 3D tiger bursting through digital barriers – and Samsung says that it aims to showcase how “Samsung’s next smartphone line-up is set to help users own the night with new advancements to its low-light smartphone photography technology”.

 

The tiger billboard ad in Pavilion isn’t the first 3D ad to wow Malaysians. Last year, there was a golden bull billboard ad to celebrate Chinese New Year. 

If you’d like to see the 3D billboard for yourself, you can go to the said mall from now until February 09. The golden bull ad did pull quite a crowd, so this one might be a popular attraction as well. 

Sadio Mane scored the winning spot-kick – after missing one in the opening minutes of the game – as Senegal claimed their first Africa Cup of Nations title with a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over seven-time winners Egypt. 

Mane stepped up to make history for the West African nation on Sunday at the Olembe Stadium in Cameroon’s Yaounde, and banished the memories of the team’s 2019 failure when they lost the final to Algeria. 

Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy saved from Egypt’s Mohanad Lasheen in the shoot-out to allow Mane the chance to seal the win and gain just reward for Senegal, who had been by far the better side in the final but spurned numerous opportunities to win the game. 

Egypt had their goalkeeper Mohamed Abo Gabal to thank for getting them into the shoot-out as he was outstanding in keeping Senegal at bay in what was the fourth time in as many games they had played extra time in energy-sapping conditions.

Anyway, congratulations, Senegal!

US Slaps Google with Antitrust Suit

It’s a fair comment to make that Big Tech enjoy "monopoly power" and have wielded their dominance in distortive and restrictive ways. 

Amazon have mistreated third-party sellers. Apple's app store fees and policies are anti-competitive. Facebook have sought to eliminate future rivals through targeted acquisitions. 

And Google, instead of competing on the quality of their search results, bought their success – they pay billions of dollars a year to device manufacturers like Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung and browser developers like Mozilla and Opera to be their default search engine and in many cases to prohibit them from dealing with Google's competitors. 

As a result, Google effectively own or control search distribution channels accounting for nearly 90 percent of all general search engine queries in the United States and almost 95 percent of searches on mobile. 

In other words, Google harm competition and prevent rivals from gaining a meaningful audience. 

And so, the US government finally decided to do something about the elephant in the room. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice sued Google, in the most aggressive legal challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech in more than two decades. 

The much-anticipated lawsuit could lead to the break-up of an iconic company that has become all but synonymous with the Internet and assumed a primary role in the day-to-day lives of billions of people around the globe.

Such an outcome is far from assured, however, and the case is likely to take years to resolve. The last time the US took up the cudgels was when it sued Microsoft for anti-competitive practices in 1998. A settlement left the company intact, though the government's prior foray into Big Tech anti-trust – the 1974 case against AT&T – led to the breakup of the Bell System. 

Google called the lawsuit "deeply flawed", adding that people "use Google because they choose to – not because they're forced to or because they can't find alternatives" – and insisting that it "would do nothing to help consumers".

Bad Press Ambushes Huawei

These days, Huawei (pronounced "wah-way", according to the company themselves) have been getting a lot of bad press. As I see it, much of it is undeserved. 

Still, the fact remains a lot of people are talking about Huawei – and not only because they make really well reviewed, top-end phones. Mobile phone sales are dominated by Samsung in first position, followed by second-placed Huawei and Apple in third place. 

But as well as the phones we've got in our pockets, Huawei also provide technology to other companies to make their own handsets and wi-fi networks. Basically, Huawei are everywhere. 

And the Chinese company find themselves in hot water in a number of countries – and that’s because some authorities believe they are using their tech to spy on people – something the company totally deny. 

There are real concerns about what Huawei have been doing with the millions of mobile phones they’ve sold and all that tech kit. 

Already, some countries fear Huawei are being used by the Chinese government to spy on people. 

The man who founded Huawei, Ren Zhengfei (right), was an engineer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the early 1980s – and that alone has alarmed businesses and governments already distrustful of China's political leaders. The Chinese People's Liberation Army is the armed force of the Communist Party of China, which have ruled the People's Republic of China since 1921. 

Huawei say they have zilch links to the government and insist they are an independent company. 

Maybe so, but there have been warnings in the US since 2012 that Huawei pose a security threat. And in the UK, a 2018 report said it had "only limited assurance" that Huawei's broadband and mobile equipment wasn't a threat to national security – which isn't exactly a glowing endorsement. In 2018, even Australia and New Zealand excluded Huawei from involvement in their future 5G network – again because they think the company might be trying to spy on them. 

There is a court case taking place in America, in which Huawei are accused of bank fraud, obstruction of justice and theft of technology from rival T-Mobile – but this is nothing to do with spying on people. 

Some of the allegations relate to deals reportedly done by Huawei with Iran – and Donald Trump has said that companies who trade with Iran cannot also trade with the US of A. 

Meng Wanzhou (left), Huawei's CFO and the daughter of Ren Zhengfei, has been arrested in Canada for her involvement in evading Trump's sanctions against Iran. 

Huawei deny all these charges. 

Most of the worries about Huawei relate to their involvement in other companies' networks – and not digging through the personal details of people who've snapped up a P20 or whatever Huawei device there is. 

[Note Huawei's P20 Pro, which was released in 2018, is a real contender to the other big hitters, whether a Samsung or an iPhone]. 

More importantly, it is noteworthy to remember there are no spying charges against the company, even in the case that's happening in the US right now – and nobody has been found guilty of anything so far. 

Just because the Chinese label sticks on Huawei, there is this irrational fear about the company that is both unfair and prejudiced.

Exploding Galaxy Note 7s

Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 entered the market with a bang!

 

Literally. Some of the phones actually exploded.

 

The world's largest maker of mobile phones had to recall 2.5 million units of this particular model – and all because their batteries began catching fire while charging.

 

The recall already puts fresh pressure on Samsung, which are already squeezed by competition from Apple in the high-end market and Chinese rivals in the low-and mid-end segment.

 

And it didn't take the Internet long to come up with all sorts of hilarious responses – a couple of my favorites have been included here. Just be careful… you might just explode with laughter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: http://www.boredpanda.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-exploding-funny-reactions/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dysfunctional Veteran’s photo

 

Actually, no brand or model is necessarily safe.

 

That is because phones use lithium ion battery packs for their power, and it just so happens that the liquid swimming around inside most lithium ion batteries is highly flammable.

 

If the battery short-circuits – say, by puncturing the incredibly thin sheet of plastic separating the positive and negative sides of the battery – the puncture point becomes the path of least resistance for electricity to flow. It heats up the (flammable!) liquid electrolyte at that spot. And if the liquid heats up quickly enough, the battery can explode.

 

It is not as if Samsung or any other phone manufacturer doesn’t know that lithium ion batteries pose a risk – but the electronics industry continues to use the flammable formula because the batteries are so much smaller and lighter than less-destructive chemistries. Lithium ion batteries pack a punch, for better or for worse.

 

Anyway, according to an unnamed Samsung official who spoke to Yonhap News, the Note 7's manufacturing defect affects less than 0.01 percent of all Note 7 handsets sold.

 

Some quick back-of-the-envelope math, and you're potentially looking at fewer than 1,000 defective phones. "It is a very rare manufacturing process error", a Samsung rep told CNET.

So, there's nothing to worry about? Except for the couple of hundreds who are just plain unlucky!

Tough Times for Samsung in China

2014 was certainly not a good year for Samsung, and the Chinese market which is the world's largest market for smartphones, proved to be both daunting and difficult for the South Korean company. 

According to research firm IDC, overall 420.7 million smartphones were shipped  to China in 2014. In terms of shipments by vendors, Samsung was reported to have slumped 22.4% for 2014 versus 2013. 

CCID Consulting, China's biggest research and consulting company, however, pointed out that Samsung lost 31.5% of their market share in China in 2014. 

It doesn't matter which numbers we trust – the fact is that Xiaomi had overtaken Samsung in China. And if this decline persists into 2015, the latter will probably plummet further down the ladder.

The Xiaomi success can be attributed to their low prices and online flash sales, says IDC. Last month, the company’s vice president of international Hugo Barra told TechCrunch’s Jon Russell that Xiaomi keeps their prices down through a combination of a smaller smartphone portfolio coupled with longer average selling time per device.

The other brands such as Lenovo, Huawei, Coolpad, Xiaomi, Meizu, and their fiercest rival, Apple, are steadily tightening the noose on Samsung.

China's Smartphone Shipments by Vendors, 2014 versus 2013











For sure, it is tough times for Samsung in China.

To further compound their misery, there have been reports that emerged last month that said that Apple have pulled ahead of Samsung as the top smartphone vendor in the world, thanks to the success of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

On Wednesday, my SUBS students at Sunway University who are from the January 2015 cohort presented their works.

This time around, only twelve commercials were produced and I am only going to feature the Top 5 in this post. The selected video clips have been examined and scrutinised by a panel of three judges from SUBS (i.e. Sri Bala, Derek Ong and I):

Samsung is No. 1 in 2013

The smartphone market hit a milestone in 2013 with more than a billion shipped – a poll by market research and analysis firm IDC reported that vendors had delivered a total of 1.004 billion smartphones, up 38.4% from 2012.

 

South Korea's Samsung saw growth of 42.9%, allowing it to extend its dominance in the global market. In other words, Samsung is No. 1, accounting for 31.3% of sales, ahead of Apple's 15.3%. Apple did witness a 12.9% growth but that is slower than the overall market, resulting in a declining market share.

 

Still, data from the fourth quarter showed Apple rebounding a little, with the release of its new iPhone models, and capturing 17.9% of sales to Samsung's 28.8%.

 

And in third spot is China's Huawei with a 4.9% market share, ahead of South Korea's LG (4.8%) and Chinese maker Lenovo (4.5%).

 

On Saturday, Elite “Toastmasters” met at KL's Royal Lake Club and the good news is that finally, they are on the verge of being chartered – it should be any day now. The meeting was forgettable and I am not going to even talk about it.

 

The Lunar New Year dinner preceded the meeting and it was the highlight of the evening – to me, at least! So, here are photos, not of the meeting but of the dinner:

 

 

Wall that is an UHD TV

Image credit: http://www.blessthisstuff.com/stuff/technology/tv-video/sony-4k-ultra-short-throw-projector/

Samsung has a 110-inch UHD TV with a steep asking price of $150,000. But Sony has an even better idea that can turn any wall into a giant ultra-high definition television. 

Unveiled at the International CES 2014 this week, the cutting-edge 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector looks like a piece of tastefully designed minimalist furniture. It is not only sleek but it delivers a 147-inch image on your wall, from just a couple of inches away. It also features two cabinet units to accommodate other home electronics and two powerful speakers making this a truly immersive and visually stunning experience.

Despite the size of the videos it is capable of screening, the system takes up very little space. Even with the speaker units, the whole thing only measures 1100 x 265 x 535mm and the projected images can be adjusted to suit the size of wall available. It may be able to top out at 147 inches, but it can also screen a film at 66 inches and at incremental sizes in between. As well as HDMI input, the projector can connect to the internet or to a satellite or cable TV feed. 

And although this particular unit on display is merely a prototype, Sony has confirmed that the finished version will be going on sale in the US by the summer, priced at approximately $30,000-$40,000 (RM98505-RM131,340). Now, isn’t this cool? 

On Thursday, the Sunway University Toastmasters Club had their regular meeting at the university. For the very first time, we had an internal General Evaluator and the honor was given to our Immediate Past President, Dr Nagiah Ramasamy. 

This meeting saw (non-Toastmasters) guests almost equaling the number of members and they were mostly newly-enrolled students from the January 2014 intake. And I believe we impressed them because there were good speeches and evaluations that evening. Even Table Topics were interesting. I am giving this meeting a score of an 8 over 10.