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China Unicom and Singtel have inked an agreement to collaborate on embedded SIM (eSIM) swap. This move will allow enterprise customers of both telcos to perform eSIM changes over-the-air (OTA) without having to manually configure their devices’ SIM cards to change networks in either China or Singapore.
Qianxi Robot Catering Group (Qianxi Group) has opened what is dubbed as the “World’s First-ever Robot Restaurant Complex” in Shunde, a city in Guangdong province.
HTC Vive has announced its entry into the cloud software business with the VIVE XR Suite offering that comprises five applications — remote collaboration, productivity, events, social, and culture.
Photo by Olga Kononenko on UnsplashChina Mobile has launched the country’s first 5G medical edge cloud platform to meet the need for connection, computing, storage, middleware, service, and security in the medical industry.
GPU-powered Lung Doc is used by 30 hospitals in China.Shukun Technology was busy improving its AI-powered platform to diagnose heart disease and strokes when COVID-19 struck. The China AI startup quickly switched gear to develop a system that analyses chest CT scans to help speed up diagnoses of COVID-19 patients.
Arm has forged a strategic partnership with Hexing to use the Arm Pelion Internet of Things (IoT) platform to create full-stack IoT solutions for Hexing’s customers and expansion into new markets.
Among the few sparkles of hope in this period is Zoom whose video conferencing solution has become famous almost overnight. With movement and gathering restrictions in place in many parts of the world, Zoom has become a tool that many have turned to to stay connected and keep operations running.
Fintech startup ABC Technology has been rated by IDC as among the 101 fastest growing fintech companies in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan).
Lessons are increasingly being conducted online because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand has been a boon for online education platforms. China-based Yuanfudao has raised US$1 billion in a new financing from investors such as Tencent Holdings, Hillhouse Capital Group, Boyu Capital, and IDG Capital.
China has just made the battle for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy a little more intense following the announcement by Megvii Technology that it would make its MegEngine deep learning framework open source.
ZTE will launch the ZTE Axon 11 5G smartphone in China on March 23. The company has given little away from its announcement press release other than the fact that the ZTE Axon 11 will be compatible with both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone) modes.
In a surprising reversal, Apple has announced that the temporary closure of all its stores outside of Greater China to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It’s interesting in that Apple has just re-opened its China stores.
By Edward Lim
Research firms have played a vital role in providing the industry with vital information on market trends and technologies. Reports based on past quarters contain valuable analysis that helps enterprises and consumers make better sense of the numbers.
Apple’s Shanghai store is among all that has reopened.After a month of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple has reopened all its 42 stores in China. The closures had hit Apple’s revenue as China is the company third largest market.
Mobile World Congress Barcelona may have been canned but the organiser has decided that the awards must still be handed out. It has announced the winners of its Global Mobile (Glomo) Awards.
The list is growing. Amazon has joined Ericsson, LG and NVIDIA in pulling out from MWC Barcelona. Held from February 24 to 27, the leading mobile event is expected to see fewer participants this year because of the novel coronavirus situation.
Despite a 0.7 percent drop in revenue, Intel climbed to the top of the global semiconductor market in 2019, according to Gartner.
China will lead in drones and robotics systems (US$46.9 billion) in 2020, according to IDC. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China) (APeJC) will be the second largest region with US$25.1 billion in spending, followed by the US (US$17.5 billion) and Western Europe (US$14.4 billion).
The Honor Pro has helped Huawei grow in Q3.Amid a 0.4 percent contraction in the global smartphone market in Q3 compared to the corresponding quarter last year, Huawei continued to stride ahead with 26 percent growth. It has narrowed the gap with Samsung at the top while pulling away from Apple in third spot.
5G is expected to have more impact that originally predicted. According to the IHS Markit 5G Economy Study, the new mobile technology will generate US$13.2 trillion is sales enablement by 2035 — that’s a near US$1 trillion increase from the estimate in 2017.
Huawei achieves strong domestic performanceDespite the challenges of US sanctions, Huawei has steamrolled ahead and narrowed the gap with Samsung for global smartphone supremacy in Q3.
Smartisan may not ring a bell to those in the region but what about TikTok? Smartisan and TikTok are both owned by ByteDance. The China-based technology company has launched the Jianguo Pro 3, its flagship smartphone that’s packed with leading features, including dual-video.
The Huawei Mate X is one of the devices that’s ready for 5G.5G mobile phone services will be available across China from tomorrow (November 1, 2019). China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have announced on their 5G plans which from 128 yuans a month.
SAP has expanded its presence in Asia-Pacific (APAC) with the opening of a new data centre in Singapore to support SAP Commerce Cloud deployment.
Samsung, China Mobile and Alibaba have made it to the top 10 of Forbes 2019 top 100 digital companies. The Korea giant came in third behind Apple and Microsoft, but edged out Google and Intel.
Umesh Parjapat of Stellapps Technologies (second from left) with (from left) Albert Boogard of Rabo Foundation, Diane Boogard of Rabobank Asia and Harjan Kuiper of Rabobank Singapore.Stellapps Technologies put on a stellar presentation to win over the judges and take home the top prize of US$10,000 at Rabobank’s SustainableAg Asia Challenge. Fending off 13 other shortlisted competitors from China, India, Indonesia, and Singapore in a field of 138, it impressed with its SmartMoo internet of things (IoT) platform, which improves yield per animal, traceability and quality of milk in emerging countries.
Malaysia’s second largest mobile network operator Maxis has inked a deal with Huawei to roll out 5G in Malaysia next year.
The signs are not good for smartphone sales as Gartner reports a 1.7 percent decline in Q2. Bucking the trend among the top five markets are China and Brazil. China clocked up 101 million smartphone sales, up 0.5 percent year on year in Q2, to maintain its top position.
By Edward Lim
It was only a matter of time before the spat between the US and China went up another level. And this week, Google joined in the fight by pulling out support for China’s world number 2 phone maker Huawei.
While its competitors struggled, Huawei strode ahead and emerged the winner in the worldwide smartphone market in Q1. Though it’s still behind market leader Samsung, the China-based smartphone giant narrowed the gap with an astounding 50 percent growth in the quarter, according to IDC.
By Edward Lim
In the early 2000s, I visited Beijing for the first time and was amazed to see a taxi using a global positioning system (GPS) to get me to my destination. To put things in perspective, this was before the arrival of smartphones and GPS wasn’t even used in Singapore.
Qualcomm has dealt a blow to Apple with Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court banning the sale of selected iPhone models in China. The move was for the violation of two Qualcomm patents.
OnePlus has fired the first salvo in the 5G race. At a Qualcomm event in Hawaii, the China smartphone maker announced its intention to launch its first 5G handset in the United Kingdom.
A six-person team from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has achieved 56.51 teraflops, the highest Linpack score — a measurement of a system’s floating point computing horsepower — in a global supercomputing competition held in conjunction with SC18 in Dallas.
Huawei has upped the ante with an ambitious US$140 million investment in developing one million artificial intelligence (AI) talents in three years. Under its AI Developer Enablement Programme, the China telecoms giant will work with universities and research institutions as well as partners and developers to build an ecosystem with AI resources, platforms, courses, and joint solutions to better support AI development.
Supermicro has become infamous overnight following an expose by Bloomberg quoting unnamed sources. According to the report, “the attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 US companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain.”
By Edward Lim
It’s hard to let go when you’re one of the richest man in the world and leading one, if not the biggest, e-commerce company in the world. But, Jack Ma is a man of his word. A man who knows his time and a man who has shown what resilience is all about.
A battle of sorts is taking place in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). It has been widely reported that China is ramping up its focus on the technology that is expected to transform businesses and industries. Numbers from ABI Research point to a swing in favour of China.
The rumour mills are spinning at top speed as smartphone launch season gets ready to kick off. With Samsung having announced the Note 9, and Apple expected to respond with a new iPhone next month, Google looks to be getting into the act too with the Pixel 3 slated for an October 9 introduction, according to Bloomberg.
The ongoing spat between China and the US seem to have claimed another victim. Apple has removed 25,000 gaming-related apps from its China app store. This move follows hard on the heels of the US ban on Huawei and ZTE technology from being used by the US government and government contractors yesterday.
Xiaomi and Samsung shipped 9.9 million smartphones each to India in Q2. Together they account for 60 percent of the total shipment that quarter, according to Canalys.
Oppo has introduced the Oppo A5, its latest mid-range smartphone in China.
Global traditional PC shipment posted the strongest growth in more than six years during the past quarter, according to IDC. Total shipment was 62.3 million units, which translates to a 2.7 percent year-on-year growth.
Smart speakers are picking up steam with the installed base expected to hit 100 million by the end of this year, according to Canalys. That’s 2.5 times the size of end 2017.
China e-commerce firm Suning Tesco has opened the first pilot route for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) logistics and transportation in Wuhan, China. Its logistics arm Suning Logistics and Ewatt Aerospace jointly developed two UAVs for this purpose.
The long awaited Xiaomi listing made an impressive debut — dropping 2.9 percent on its opening day in Hong Kong. Priced at HK$17.00 at launch, the share price dipped to HK$16.50 in early trading.
China has emerged tops with five out of 19 winners in the 2018 IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA). Taiwan and Singapore were next with four and three awards respectively across 12 functional categories.
Copywriters, beware! A new tool dubbed “The AI copywriter” by Alimama can generate an astounding 20,000 lines of copy in a second. Alimama is the digital marketing arm of China e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Taiwan smartphone maker HTC is making a cut of the most painful kind — by slicing 20 percent of its workforce. The decision to swallow the bitter pill comes in the wake of heavy losses and strong competition.
China artificial intelligence (AI) company SenseTime has inked memoranda of understanding (MOU) with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National Supercomputing Centre of Singapore (NSCC) and Singtel.
China manufacturer ElinkSmart has unveiled the Smart Wi-Fi Camera Kit for home security.
China e-commerce giant JD.com has received a US$550 million investment from Google as part of a strategic partnership.
Twenty-two days. It took relatively unknown smartphone maker OnePlus just that amount of time to sell one million units of OnePlus 6, its latest smartphone.
China smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi grew strongest as the market recovered in Q1, according to Gartner.
Google has ousted Amazon from the perch of the global smart speaker market. According to Canalys, Google shipped 3.2 million units with its Google Home and Google Home mini series , surpassing the 2.5 million units of the Amazon Echo series for the first time in Q1.
China’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) since 2015 will come to pass if Foxconn Industrial Internet hits its target of 27.1 billion yuan on May 24.
Microsoft has acquired Semantic Machines, which has developed a new approach to building conversational artificial intelligence (AI).
ZTE looks like it’s getting a chance to resurrect its business, thanks to help from the highest office in the United States. Last week, the China telecom giant announced that it had to cease business activities because of US sanctions on critical components.
ZTE has hit a massive roadblock that has resulted in the cessation of its business operations. China’s number 2 telecom equipment maker was hit by the US’s seven-year blockade to vital components needed for its devices.
Xiaomi, one of China’s biggest smartphone makers, has picked Hong Kong for its public listing.
Entelechy Asia 