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Tag Archives: Samsung
Samsung in China: latest business and financial News by former journalist at Reuter, expert of Chinese high Tech Market Doug Young
Samsung in China: latest News
Bottom line: Larry Page’s latest remarks are the newest signal that Google is working to return to China with a local version of its Play store and Nexus phones, as it tries to open a new chapter in its tense relationship with Beijing.
Larry Page hands off Google China strategy to new CEO
Observers are putting the latest China comments from one of Google’s(Nasdaq: GOOG) co-founders under the microscope, trying to figure out the company’s intentions towards a market that it both loves and hates. The bottom line seems to be that Larry Page wants to personally distance himself from China, following his company’s high profile spat with Beijing over censorship that saw Google withdraw from the Chinese search market in 2010.
But at the same time, Page wants to let others take Google back into China, in a nod to the importance of a market that has become the world’s largest for both smartphones and Internet use. That’s probably quite a prudent approach in face-conscious China, where personal relationships are a key element to doing business. That same principle also means that meetings between people with strained relationships should also be avoided, which is what Page appears to be doing by personally distancing himself from Google’s future operations in China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Unigroup’s aim of building a telecoms and memory chip giant through strategic tie-ups and plant construction could provide challenges for global leaders like Qualcomm and Samsung.
Unigroup affiliate eyes new chip factory
Tsinghua Unigroup has leaped from obscurity to become a major headline grabber over the last 2 years, by snapping up a series of global and domestic assets aimed at building a Chinese chip maker that could someday rival the likes of Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). That spending binge continues this week with 2 new headlines, led by comments from Unigroup’s top executive saying he would consider a bid for Taiwan’s MediaTek (Taipei: 2454), one of world’s top makers of chips used in smartphones. In the other headline, a China-listed Unigroup affiliate has just said it plans to raise up to 80 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) to build new chip plants.
All of this comes just a week after Unigroup announced another $600 million deal to purchase a quarter of Taiwan’s Powertech (Taipei: 6239), which engages in the relatively low-end business of test and assembly services for microchips. (previous post) These latest headlines are the clearest indication yet that Unigroup and its affiliates have strong backing from Beijing. I say that because most of the funds being raised in a newly announced private placement by Tongfang Guoxin Electronics (Shenzhen: 002049) are coming from state-run sources. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tsinghua Unigroup could be quietly helping to bankroll Western Digital’s bid for SanDisk, as part of its vision of building a Chinese NAND memory powerhouse that could challenge Samsung.
Unigroup bankrolling Western Digital’s SanDisk bid?
I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist, but a sudden flurry of multibillion-dollar memory chip deals all involving Tsinghua Unigroup is certainly catching my attention. Just a day after global chip giant Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) announced a $5.5 billion investment that looked related to Unigroup, we’re seeing yet another similarly large deal that has some indirect ties to this Chinese company linked to the nation’s top science institution, Tsinghua University.
This latest new deal will see hard disk maker Western Digital (Nasdaq: WDC) buy flash memory maker SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) in a cash and stock deal worth $19 billion. (English article; Chinese article) China watchers will recall that announcement of this deal comes just 2 weeks after a Unigroup affiliate paid $3.8 billion for 15 percent of Western Digital. (previous post) I theorized a short time later that Unigroup’s sudden thirst for memory could even prompt it to make a play for storage device giant EMC (NYSE: EMC), which is in the process of being acquired by Dell in a blockbuster deal worth $67 billion. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Google’s establishment of China-based servers and registration of Chinese domain names associated with its app store show it could enter the local smartphone market by Lunar New Year and quickly become a significant player.
Google sets up China servers
New information on a low-profile but authoritative techie website is hinting that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is inching towards a return to China, but this time in the less controversial hardware and apps areas where rival Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has built a lucrative business. The somewhat geeky posting says Google has quietly set up several servers in China, and has registered China-related Internet domain names associated with Google Play, its main app store that is now blocked in the country.
If and when it does announce its return, which could happen before the Lunar New Year, Google is almost certain to draw criticism from some western observers. Many of those previously lauded the company for the decision to shutter its China search engine in 2010, following a high-profile dispute over censorship. Those same people could accuse Google of hypocrisy with its decision to return to China, even though other major global names like Apple and Samsung (Seoul: 005930) already operate thriving businesses in the Chinese smartphone and app markets. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Huawei’s ongoing surge should help to consolidate its position as China’s leading domestic smartphone brand, while a newly formed cell tower operator will relieve China’s 3 telcos of the burden of owning and operating such assets.
New cell tower operator takes shape
The telecoms space is buzzing on both the operator and consumer products sides, with surging smartphone maker Huawei and a new cell tower operator called China Tower both rising in the latest headlines. The higher profile of these 2 telecoms headlines has Huawei continuing its rise to become the world’s third largest smartphone brand, stealing the title from the fading Xiaomi. Meantime, all 3 of China’s big state-run telcos have come out with one of their simultaneous announcements saying they have formally transferred their cell tower assets to China Tower.
This pair of stories is quite different, but the bigger picture is one of trying to improve by becoming more efficient and diverse. In the case of Huawei the company is trying to leverage its long experience in making telecoms equipment to diversify into the consumer-oriented smartphone space. In the second case, China’s telecoms regulator is trying to improve efficiency among the nation’s 3 stodgy telcos by doing something that carriers in the west did on their own long ago. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Huawei’s new Nexus tie-up with Google could help Huawei make significant inroads to the US, and could see Google enter the crowded Chinese smartphone market by year-end.
Huawei, Google link up through Nexus
Just days after the launch of the newest iPhone, fast-rising Chinese smartphone maker Huawei will make its own renewed push into Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) home turf through a highly-anticipated tie-up with Internet titan Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). This particular tie-up will see Huawei make one of the newest phones in Google’s Nexus line, in a tie-up that has been written about quite a bit already but is set for a formal announcement later on Tuesday.
That announcement would come just days after the launch of the newest iPhone 6s models, which broke records by selling 13 million units over their first weekend. Apple was able to break that record in no small part due to contributions from China, the world’s biggest smartphone market, which was absent in the last iPhone global launch due to delays for technical reasons. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s smartphone market will contract through the middle of next year in terms of unit sales, but will grow by sales value as consumers upgrade to higher-end models for their second and third purchases.
Smartphone sales drop in Q2
The newest quarterly data for China’s smartphone market reveal a divergence taking place, with the actual number of phones sold down sharply even as total sales value posted healthy growth. That divergence reflects the fact that after buying their first smartphones over the last 2 years, often at very low prices, many Chineseconsumers are becoming more selective for their newer purchases.
When they buy their second and third phones, many are no longer only looking at price, and instead are considering other factors like a phone’s attractiveness, reliability and functionality. That bodes well for names like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Huawei, which excel at higher-end models that are both attractive and well designed. But it looks more ominous for names like Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and the many smaller homegrown brands that are churning out cheap, more generic models. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Lenovo’s attempt to make Motorola the flagship for its smartphone business looks set to fizzle, in a major setback for the company’s drive into mobile devices.
Moto sales on downward slide
I’ve predicted gloom and doom before for PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992), China’s first truly global high-tech brand, and each time the company has proven me wrong. But Lenovo’s latest quarterly financial report really does look like cause for concern once more, showing results that can only be described as terrible. Anchoring the misery was a huge sales plunge for its recently acquired Motorola brand, which was meant to become a cornerstone for Lenovo’s emerging smartphone business.
In some ways this particular cycle looks like deja vu, since Lenovo followed a similar pattern when it burst onto the global stage a decade ago with its landmark purchase of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) PC business. That acquisition also later created major headaches for Lenovo, and resulted in a massive restructuring that ultimately laid the groundwork for the company to become the world’s leading PC brand. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Lack of buzz around Xiaomi’s launch of production in India and Lenovo’s new line of ZUK smartphones reflect fatigue that is rapidly consuming domestic Chinese brands due to rampant competition in their home market.
More fatigue signs in China smartphone market
Signs of fatigue continue to grow in China’s overheated smartphone market, where rampant competition and unending price wars these last 2 years have led to saturation and a rapid slowdown. That fatigue is visible in 2 of the latest headlines, one of which has former superstar Xiaomi failing to garner much buzz as it launches production in India to jump-start its stalling growth. The other has the struggling Lenovo (HKEx; 992) launching its own new brand of smartphones, as it also faces lackluster performance for its current lineup sold under its own name and the Motorola brand it acquired last year.
China’s smartphone market is the world’s largest, but also the most competitive due to the presence of many homegrown domestic players. That reality has forced many mid-sized and smaller names to seek tie-ups with wealthier partners, and forced everyone to look abroad for growth as profits shriveled at home. Adding to the woes, China’s smartphone market has been contracting this year, with sales falling 4.3 percent in the first quarter after several years of explosive growth. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Second-quarter smartphone data confirms recent trends that have shown a surge for Huawei and Apple, while Lenovo and Samsung struggle and Xiaomi also faces rapidly slowing growth.
Huawei consolidates spot as world’s No 3 smartphone maker
The latest smartphone sales figures are out, showing a recent surge for Huawei and strong but slowing growth for Xiaomi, as Chinese brands continued to take 3 of the top 5 global spots. Meantime, the same chart shows the lackluster Lenovo (HKEx: 992) continued to stumble as it failed to find an audience for its products, and global leader Samsung (Seoul: 005930) also continues to struggle.
The latest second-quarter figures from IDC come as another smaller data tracking firm IHS Technology released its own numbers showing Xiaomi continued to rule the China roost and even boosted its share of the market. Meantime, Samsung continued to slip in the world’s biggest smartphone market, falling a notch to barely stay in the top 5 brands. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple could lose its crown as China’s best-selling smartphone brand by the end of the year, as it faces growing competition from domestic names looking for a bigger slice of the high-end market.
China loses crown as top iPhone market
Global smartphone pioneer Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has just released its latest quarterly results, which as usual contain very selective bits of information about the China market that are revealing but make it difficult to draw very strong conclusions. One emerging trend appears to have Apple coming under growing threat from Chinese brands eying the higher end of the market. That’s my quick conclusion based on Apple’s admission that China fell to second place among its global markets in its latest reporting quarter, after briefly grabbing the top spot from the US during the previous quarter.
Of course everything is relative, and Apple still looks quite strong in China with iPhone sales in its Greater China market up an impressive 87 percent in its latest reporting quarter. (English article) But that said, there’s really no reason that the US should have retaken the top spot from China during the quarter, since both countries now receive their new iPhones at roughly the same time. Read Full Post…
