Telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are in the headlines today for their newer product initiatives, as each tries to offset slowing growth in their core telecoms equipment business. Of the pair, Huawei’s news looks the most bullish, with the company targeting a sharp rise in smartphone sales as it sets its sights on overtaking Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as the world’s second largest seller. Meantime, ZTE has formally rolled out its new gaming console, the FunBox, which looks a bit more exciting that I’d originally imagined and carries an extremely low price tag. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 20 To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Huawei Targets 80 Mln Smartphone Shipments In 2014, Aims For No 2 Spot (Chinese article)
China Telecom, Unicom New Users Drop Sharply In February (Chinese article)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Announces Annual Results For 2013 (HKEx announcement)
ZTE9 Releases FunBox – the World’s Fastest Home Entertainment Console (Businesswire)
Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) To Partner With Russian Flash Sales Site (English article)
The latest developments in an ongoing strike at an IBM (NYSE: IBM) plant in Shenzhen are highlighting the big gap that still exists between Chinese companies and their western peers in terms of attractiveness as employers. In the latest twist to the story, half of the workers at the south China plant have decided to accept severance packages and quit their jobs rather than go to work for Chinese PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992), which is set to take over the plant as part of its purchase of IBM’s low-end server business for $2.3 billion. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
The 4G strategies of China’s 2 smaller telcos are starting to emerge under an unusual hybrid scheme being rolled out by the nation’s telecoms regulator, and the path being pursued by China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) certainly doesn’t look encouraging. Both Unicom and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) have been given the nod to launch commercial 4G service using a homegrown standard known as TD-LTE, even though both plan to build their main networks using a more globally tested technology technology called FDD-LTE. But whereas China Telecom is making minimal investment in TD-LTE, Unicom seems intent on wasting billions of dollars, with word that it has awarded contracts to 8 companies to start construction of a network based on the technology. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Much of the China tech world was focused last week on the world’s largest telecoms trade show taking place in Barcelona, but one company that was noticeably absent from the Mobile World Congress was fast-rising smartphone maker Xiaomi. That absence was all the more noticeably because Xiaomi has made no secret of its plans for a global expansion this year as part of a strategy to maintain its explosive growth in the 4 years since its founding. Xiaomi seems to have skipped the big show this year, and instead focused its energies on its own internal suppliers meeting, as reflected by a flurry of microblog posts from that event. Read Full Post…
Chinese car makers are fueling a new global buying binge of clean-energy assets, with the latest word that privately owned Geely Automobile (HKEx: 175) is buying a British electric car startup. Geely’s deal comes just weeks after China’s Wanxiang Group completed its second major acquisition of a clean energy firm in the US, hinting at a growing wave of global M&A by tech-hungry Chinese car makers. This flurry of deals also comes as China’s leading electric vehicle (EV) maker, BYD (HKEx: 1211; Shenzhen: 002594), spotlights new government data that showcases its own technology development prowess. Read Full Post…
I wrote earlier this week about how the free Firefox mobile operating system (OS) could intensify the already fierce competition in China’s smartphone market, and now we’re getting word that such a development could come quite soon with the release of new Firefox models from local leaders Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063). It’s no coincidence that all this news is coming out around the same time, since all the major smartphone and mobile chip makers are currently showcasing their latest wares this week at the Mobile World Congress, the industry’s biggest show held each February in Barcelona. Read Full Post…
New data is showing that the inevitable slowdown in China’s smartphone sales may have begun at the end of last year, following a boom that saw the country overtake the US to become the world’s largest market. Another noteworthy data point includes the slippage of ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) from the top 5 smartphone sellers, as it loses momentum to more aggressive rivals like Huawei, Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and Coolpad. Meantime, fast-rising Xiaomi still has yet to make it into the top 5 sellers, but achieved a major milestone by breaking into the top 5 list for the nearby Taiwan market. Read Full Post…
The final death knell for one of China’s oldest software developers is casting a spotlight on just how difficult it is for companies to break into the global market for computer operating systems (OS). The end for Red Flag Software also bodes poorly for a number of more recent Chinese initiatives to create a mobile OS to rival Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) wildly popular Android and Apple’s (Nasdaq: APPL) own iOS. No specific reasons were given in the reports for Red Flag Software’s final demise, though I suspect defections by the company’s core state-run customers and a broader decline in the traditional desktop PC market were both factors. Read Full Post…
I wasn’t too impressed on reading about one of the first promotions in the United States by Tencent (HKEx: 700), following reports last year that it planned to take its popular WeChat mobile instant messaging service to the lucrative but highly competitive market. I realize it will be difficult for WeChat to find an audience in the US, where its name is unknown and it will face stiff competition from local players like Whatsapp and even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). But the company will have to do a bit more to raise its profile if it really hopes to win over demanding US consumers. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Announces iPhone Plans, 16G Model For 5488 Yuan (Chinese article)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) To Pay HK$1.5 Bln For China South City (HKEx: 1668) Stake (Chinese article)
AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) Announces Completion of Merger (PRNewswire)
Huawei Estimates Operating Profit Rose Over 40 Pct Last Year (English article)
Former Nuomi Head Named As LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) China President (Chinese article)
