China Internet – Home court advantage

Reply to this post           Regulatory enforcement makes life even harder for the foreigners. . China appears to be on a path to plugging the leaks in the Golden Shield Project (aka The Great Firewall of China (GFW)) which is likely diminish to almost zero the small presence that Google, Facebook and so on have managed...

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Xiaomi – Back in black

Reply to this post           Xiaomi is back but ecosystem nowhere to be found. A monster quarter has brought Xiaomi back into contention as a major player in the smartphone industry but this recovery needs to be more than just a product cycle for it to stay there. In a letter to employees, CEO Lei Jun...

Samsung Q2 17A – Just chipper.

Reply to this post           Samsung heading for No. 1. A truly mighty performance from Samsung puts it well on track to promoted to being the largest semiconductor company in the world by revenues this year. Samsung has reported preliminary results for Q2 17 with revenues / EBIT expected at KRW 60tn / KRW 14tn nicely...

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Mobike vs. Ofo – Blood soaked economics.

Reply to this post           Here comes another bloodbath. Another battle is brewing over ride hailing but the fact that it is bicycles rather than cars will make no difference to the blood-letting that is likely ensue. The big contenders in this space are both Chinese, headquartered in Beijing comprising of Mobike backed by Tencent and...

Samsung Bixby – Old demon

Reply to this post           The software / AI demon remains un-exorcised. Samsung is continuing to dominate hardware but once again its shortcomings in software and particularly artificial intelligence (AI) are laid bare for all to see. In March, Samsung launched the excellent Galaxy s8 and with it a personal assistant called Bixby that was supposed...

Alibaba – Virgin home

Reply to this post           Another day, another home assistant. Alibaba is moving to launch a home speaker, much like Amazon Echo, that should direct users to its e-commerce services but I suspect that if it teams up with Baidu, it will launch a better product The obvious intention is to make it even easier for...

LeEco – Bleeding out

Reply to this post           LeEco could be acquired by one of the BATmen. Despite closing the vast majority of its US operations, LeEco’s troubles are far from over as its cash problems have intensified which I think could lead to its eventual acquisition. Leishi Internet Information & Technology (listed parent of LeEco) held its AGM...

Digital sensors – Eyes and ears.

Reply to this post           Sensors are the eyes and ears of AI. Data is the raw material of artificial intelligence (see here) meaning that will be increasingly critical that the sensors that collect that data are reliable and accurate. Nowhere is this more true than in eHealth where inaccurate data is useless at best and...

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Smartphone hardware – Sticky fingers.

Reply to this post           Fingerprint sensors define the market this year. The problem with covering the whole of the front of a smartphone with glass is that it creates a problem for fingerprint ID on the home button. Samsung got around this by inconveniently locating fingerprint ID on the back of the device ensuring that...

Alphabet vs. EU – Timeslip

Reply to this post           Google has time on its side in Android. I think that it is the remedies that the EU imposes that have the potential to do the real damage as long as they are quickly put in place. I view the fine as almost an irrelevance. Alphabet has been handed a $2.7bn...

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