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Nvidia Rockets Past Google, Thanks to AI! Is This Chipmaker Unstoppable?

Anubhav — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 15:52:38 +0000

Nvidia is undoubtedly a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) computing chips, and the company has just reached another new milestone. It became the third-largest company in the United States by market capitalization – just days before the company is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings, which are expected to be impressive thanks to soaring demand for its AI technology.

Nvidia’s stock price has shot up by 231% in the past year alone, thanks to AI

Fueled by strong demand for their AI chips, Nvidia’s stock price has skyrocketed 231% in the past year, pushing its market value to a staggering $1.812 trillion. This surpasses Alphabet, the parent company of Google, whose market capitalization currently sits at $1.814 trillion.

The company’s impressive performance has also landed it a spot among the “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which represent the top performers on the S&P 500 this year. Nvidia achieved this by outperforming retail giant Amazon, solidifying its position as a major player in the tech industry.

Analysts are predicting a stellar performance from Nvidia in its upcoming earnings report, with expectations of an eye-popping 400% increase in profit compared to last year. Revenue is also expected to experience a significant jump, rising by over 300% to a staggering $20.37 billion.

Despite this optimistic outlook, some experts caution that the stock might already be reflecting its future potential. Currently, Nvidia trades at a higher price-to-earnings ratio compared to the industry average, suggesting that its future growth may be priced in. However, with the AI market still in its early stages, Nvidia undoubtedly holds a strong position for continued success. The company also unveiled its own AI Chatbot and a New GPU in the past few days.

While Alphabet remains a formidable competitor, Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market demonstrates the potential of this rapidly evolving field. Whether Nvidia maintains its third-place position remains to be seen, but its success serves as a reminder of the transformative power of artificial intelligence.

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Tech Giants Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices Face Investor Skepticism Despite AI Hype

Anubhav — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 02:36:22 +0000

Recently, two major tech players, Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), experienced a reality check. Despite riding high on an artificial intelligence (AI) fueled rally, their latest quarterly results have left investors wanting more.

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, and it saw a 5.6% drop in stock

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw a 5.6% drop in its stock value following a December-quarter ad revenue that fell short of market expectations. This comes even as the company plans to increase its spending on data centers, a move crucial to bolster its AI capabilities. Such expansion is vital in its ongoing tussle with Microsoft, a key competitor in the AI arena. Despite a slight edge in Google Cloud revenue growth, Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is outpacing Google, thanks to new AI features that are drawing customers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, a frontrunner in the AI race, surpassed revenue estimates due to its cloud and Windows services enhanced by AI. However, its stock experienced a modest dip in extended trade. This minor setback doesn’t overshadow the fact that Microsoft’s market value recently soared past $3 trillion, eclipsing Apple, thanks to the AI buzz.

On the other hand, AMD, a significant player in the chipmaking sector, saw its shares fall by 6% post-announcement of its first-quarter revenue forecast, which didn’t meet the expectations. Despite this, AMD remains optimistic about the strong sales potential of its AI processors.

Another notable mention is Nvidia, whose shares surged 27% in January and more than tripled last year, primarily due to AI-driven enthusiasm. Yet, it too saw some of its gains retreat in extended trade.

Super Micro Computer, a server maker benefiting from AI demand, also experienced a drop in its shares after hitting a record high earlier in the day.

This mixed bag of results and market reactions illustrates a broader narrative. It seems that while AI continues to be a significant growth driver and a source of excitement in the tech world, it’s not always a guaranteed win. Investors are scrutinizing the reality behind the AI hype, seeking more than just promises of future AI integration. This cautious approach reflects the complexity and unpredictability of weaving AI into the corporate fabric, a journey full of potential yet fraught with challenges.

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Google Settles Play Store Antitrust Lawsuit with $700 Million and Play Store Tweaks

Rajesh — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 10:18:17 +0000

Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, has made amends in a major antitrust lawsuit. Facing pressure from all 50 US states and consumers, they’ve agreed to a $700 million settlement and tweak the Google Play Store’s policies to open up the Android app market.

The accusations? Google allegedly used unfair tactics to force developers to use the Play Store exclusively, inflating app prices in the process. They pocketed up to 30% of each Play Store transaction, a hefty chunk that consumers and developers alike felt the sting of.

Google to pay $700 million to settle antitrust lawsuit

Now, to settle the legal mess, Google agreed to pay up big and loosen its grip on the Play Store ecosystem:

$630 million consumer fund: This pot of money will go to consumers who may have overpaid for in-app purchases via Google Play. The distribution of the fund will be court-approved, though specifics on distribution haven’t been revealed.
$70 million state fund: Google will pay states an additional $70 million to cover state AGs see fit.

To make amends, Google is also opening up the app ecosystem. Developers will now have the choice to use a separate billing system, saving them 4% on those hefty fees.

Google’s been testing this system for over a year, and now it should finally go official. Plus, developers can now offer different price options within apps, giving consumers more flexibility.

Moreover, the Play Store’s hold on app downloads is loosening too. Google is making it easier for users to download apps directly from developers’ websites, bypassing the Play Store entirely.

They’re also toning down the warnings that pop up when sideloading apps. The message when sideloading the app will now read “Your phone currently isn’t configured to install apps from this source. Granting this source permission to install apps could place your phone and data at risk.”

Likewise, for phone makers, the Play Store isn’t the only game in town anymore. They can pre-install other app stores without Google’s permission, even skipping the Play Store altogether. And in the upcoming Android 14, these alternative stores can even handle app updates, taking another slice of power away from Google’s grip.

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Alphabet shares drop 9.5% despite strong earnings: Cloud Revenue concerns

Joane — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:01:29 +0000

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, experienced a sharp decline in its stock value, plummeting by 9.5% after its third-quarter earnings report, despite beating overall expectations. The drastic dip was primarily triggered by the disappointment surrounding Alphabet’s cloud revenue, which fell short of projections. In contrast, Microsoft, Alphabet’s key competitor in the cloud-computing market, saw a 2.8% gain due to the success of its AI-driven services.

Alphabet’s cloud division faced challenges due to a slow growth rate, especially in comparison to Microsoft’s robust performance. Microsoft’s focus on established business clients using its software services paid off, whereas Alphabet’s emphasis on startups and a slower AI service rollout contributed to concerns among investors. The market’s response reflected worries that Alphabet might lose ground to Microsoft in the rapidly evolving cloud industry.

Analysts reassure investors over Google’s 9.5% stock drop, deeming the reaction excessive given the cloud revenue’s 11% share in Alphabet’s total revenue. Despite falling slightly below expectations at $8.41 billion, Google’s cloud revenue grew by 22% from the previous year. Experts anticipate challenges in AI infrastructure to fade by next year, while integration with advertisements may benefit Google in the long run. Despite cloud competition, optimism remains high regarding Google’s overall performance, emphasizing strengths beyond the cloud sector.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai pointed out that customer spending optimization impacted the revenue figures, and the company plans to introduce a series of AI models, including the highly anticipated Gemini, in the coming year. Google’s investments in AI startups and collaborations with companies like Meta demonstrate its commitment to expanding its AI offerings.

While Alphabet’s cloud business faces headwinds, its core search business remains robust, offering a glimmer of hope amidst the challenges. Analysts caution that the cloud optimization efforts might take several more quarters to yield significant results. Nevertheless, Alphabet’s strong research and technical capabilities position it as a formidable contender, even in the face of stiff competition from Microsoft.

As the cloud market continues to evolve, both Alphabet and Microsoft are gearing up for the AI revolution expected in 2023. With the upcoming launch of Gemini, Alphabet aims to leverage large-language models to drive growth, showcasing the company’s dedication to staying at the forefront of innovative technology despite the recent market turbulence.

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Google Quietly Pushes New YouTube UI That Puts YouTube Shorts onto the Top of Your Subscription Feed

Leo Wong De Quan — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 21:26:38 +0000

Last month, Google announced that it was killing the under-utilised “YouTube Stories” feature on YouTube and revealed its intention to shift focus onto newer and more popular features like YouTube Shorts and Community posts. And it seems that the focus shift is apparent starting today as Google has quietly pushed out a new user interface change for gradually all users in its latest update to YouTube.

Previously only pushed out to selected YouTube users as beta-testing, the new UI change for all YouTube users puts the YouTube Shorts section on the top of your subscription feed, whereby it is ranked second in priority, right after one of the latest videos from your subscribed channels. The change is applicable and seen as both the desktop site of YouTube, as well as the YouTube application on Android and iOS.

The new UI change puts the Shorts Section in your Subscription Feed tab on desktop, in addition to already being in your recommendations tab and Shorts Tab. Source: Leo Wong De Quan/Gizmochina

New UI Change on YouTube Android App with Shorts under Subscriptions tab as well. Source: Leo Wong De Quan/Gizmochina

The YouTube Shorts section previously only appeared on the recommendations tab and the dedicated Shorts Tab, but this new UI change means Shorts will also appear in your subscriptions from now on. Touted as a competitor to TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts fall into the category of short-form vertical videos that loops back onto themselves. Many users called Shorts addictive and they can sink many hours scrolling for more content.

Although the popularity of YouTube Shorts has grown over time, the same could not be said for YouTube Stories, a feature that is copied from Instagram and Snapchat whereby content creators can post videos that will be automatically deleted in 24 hours. The official discontinuation of the Stories feature has been announced by YouTube, scheduled for June 26. Post this date, creators will no longer have the option to share stories on their respective pages. All stories made before this deadline will persist on the creators’ profiles for the customary seven days. However, come Monday, July 3, the YouTube platform will be devoid of any stories.

The YouTube user interface has gone through several revisions over the past 5 years, from introducing video playback speed configurations to removing the dislike button on videos, the platform has always stirred up conversation about the changes it makes to its website every time. Whether this change is a welcome one or an adverse one in the community remains to be seen and discussed by the Internet, but one thing is for certain, the YouTube you are using today is not the same as it was 5 years ago.

Apple’s value now surpasses Alphabet, Amazon, & Meta combined

Sean — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 11:21:15 +0000

Apple is apparently worth a lot more than one would image. The company alone has a value that surpasses three of its rival combined, which includes the likes of Alphabet, Amazon, and even Meta. So here are all the details.

Over the last couple of months, tech giants in the US have been reporting weak earnings, with most of them taking big hits. Examples of this includes Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company saw the largest loss, with its evaluation following by a significant 20 percent or a whopping 90 billion US Dollars. However, this negative trend wasn’t universal as the Cupertino based giant managed to see a rise of 6 percent. Apple shared its earning last week, and according to a BusinessInsider report, this shows that it worth more than the sum of three of its competitors.

The report stated that the iPhone maker is now worth 2.307 trillion US Dollars. Meanwhile, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is worth 1.126 trillion US Dollars. Similarly, Amazon is evaluated at 940 billion US Dollars and Meta is worth 240 billion US Dollars. This basically shows the level of disparity among the world’s top tech giants. Furthermore, it is worth noting that Apple managed to avoid the trend of decline, which the other companies faced.

Based on the report, the company managed to see growth during this time thanks to the launch of its latest iPhone 14 lineup. It also saw a strong performance in this quarter, which was complimented by its products that targeted various categories and even services. So, the iPhone isn’t the only product that helped the brand, with its Mac lineup of laptops and desktop PCs also helping the brand see a rise during this period.

YouTube Free is Silently Testing 5 Ads, instead of 2, Before Your Video Starts

Leo Wong De Quan — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 07:59:41 +0000

YouTube, the video-sharing social media platform wholly owned by Google, has recently silently implemented a new ad format starting this September 2022. YouTube users who are not subscribed to YouTube Premium, will now receive up to 5 advertisements to be watched, before your video starts.

The news broke out when several YouTube Free users started complaining on Twitter and Reddit that they have been receiving 5 ads instead of 2, before they could watch their YouTube video.

So @YouTube 2 ads weren’t enough now y’all wanna play 5 ads that no one cares for AND I CANT SKIP ?

— Mermaidvee (@BadGyalVeeVee) September 7, 2022

youtube just gave me 5 long unskipable ads pic.twitter.com/FgUUrzZvoB

— The Ricked One (@LoganC01962550) September 8, 2022

For several YouTube Free users, they reported that they have received 5 unskippable advertisements as opposed to skippable advertisements before a video-watching session, and this caused dissent and upset among the users.

Regarding the matter, YouTube has issued an official reply on Twitter acknowledging the situation and stated that the new 5-ad phenomenon could happen to YouTube users with the company’s certain type of ad format called bumper ads. As explained by YouTube, these bumper ads are short-form ads on the platform that are typically 6 seconds long, and unfortunately unskippable.

hmm…this may happen with a certain type of ad format called bumper ads, since they're only up to 6 seconds long. if you'd like, you can send feedback directly from YouTube via the send feedback tool

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) September 7, 2022

Currently not all YouTube Free users are experiencing the “5 ads before your video starts” situation, so it seems like YouTube is currently testing out the waters among selected YouTube Free users. As of now, most users of YouTube Free are only receiving up to 2 ads before their video starts, but it is not known whether the “5-ad format” change will be rolled out to all YouTube Free users soon.

Lastly, YouTube reiterates that if both Free and Premium users have any feedback regarding YouTube’s ad policy, users can always send feedback directly to the company via the “Send Feedback” tool on the company’s video-sharing platform.

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(Source Main, Source 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

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FAANG Now Irrelevant, MATANA is the New Face Of Big Tech – Report

Leo Wong De Quan — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 09:46:56 +0000

If you are a citizen of the 21st century, you have probably heard of FAANG, the world’s 5 biggest companies that are running our modern-day tech industry, or as folks call it – Big Tech. FAANG is an abbreviation for Facebook (now rebranded as Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

However, a recent report this week seems to indicate that FAANG is no longer relevant in today’s market and that today, Big Tech is now spearheaded by 6 new leading tech giants that make up MATANA, and they are Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, and Alphabet (the parent company of Google).

The 6 MATANA Tech Companies

In a recent video interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Constellation Research Principal Analyst & Founder Ray Wang states that the FAANG abbreviation should be reassessed as it no longer reflects the current market trends.

In the interview, Wang debates that MATANA is an upgrade from FAANG as the new abbreviation added Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia into the Big Tech lineup whilst dropping Facebook and Netflix from the list altogether.

The main reason behind the current market trend is because of both Facebook and Netflix are facing fierce competition from their industry rivals, whilst facing backlash from their audiences as well as regulations from governing bodies worldwide.

On the topic of Meta, Yahoo Finance quotes Wang, “Facebook has got to do something besides ads.” “Once again, they’re taking a beating for it. So, is it going to be the glasses? Is it going to be the metaverse? We’re not there yet and that’s really kind of what the challenge is.”

As for Netflix, Wang comments, “The reason they’re out is because, how many more subscribers? How many more subscriptions are you going to handle?” “Product placement should be where they are, plus the ability to do IP licensing. Look at how Disney makes its money.”

Thus, it seems as if the days of Meta and Netflix as market leaders in the industry are numbered, and unless both companies provide new and innovative products in the markets fast, they may end up the likes of Nokia, Blackberry, and other once globally dominant technology brands.

Blackberry Fading Away (Colourised)

Coming to Microsoft and Nvidia, the analyst had several insights to share about them. To quote Wang via Yahoo Finance:

“Microsoft has more than just business-to-business and consumer – they’ve been able to manage both,” he said. “They’re positioned well for the metaverse. They’re positioned well for the cloud and, of course, they’ve got their gaming business.”

“Nvidia is a lot more than just the chips that we look at and more than the data center or gaming,” Wang said. “They’re sitting at the edge between AI, the metaverse, the future of computing, and the way they do their partnerships, they’re set up in a way that’s going to be dominant for quite some time.”

As for Tesla, people had already heard the story of Elon Musk many times, and that he is now the world’s wealthiest man on Earth. And despite the current negative press on Tesla cars, the company sales are still growing and projected to grow further as the world switches away from petrol and gas vehicles to the more environmentally friendly electrical vehicle alternative.

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(Source)

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Alphabet subsidiary Wing to launch its drone delivery service in Dallas, Texas

Sean — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:43:42 +0000

Wing, a subsidiary of Google‘s parent company Alphabet, has recently announced that it will be bringing its drone delivery service to the Texas city of Dallas. This marks the first densely populated market that it is launching its service in.

This means that soon you can expect to see drones flying around in Dallas-Fort Worth with small containers that will be filled with products like Tylenol and Band Aids. In other words, Wing is starting its deliveries for small products that will be available in just one Walgreens to the city of Frisco and town of Little Elm. According to the company, it will be using its new operation model to ship small containers parked next to the store act as tiny hangers out of which Wing’s drones will be deployed.

Notably, the Walgreens employees will be trained in how to attach the packages to the company’s packages rather than Wing’s technicians. For those unaware, major tech giants like Amazon and Uber among other brands have been working on launching their own drone delivery services as well. These drones seeks to revolutionize the process of shipping goods and products. As of right now, the technology has mainly focused on small scale experiments like delivering vaccines and blood to remote regions.

In the US, drone delivery has mostly been limited to the smaller towns that are less crowded and less complex. But now, Alphabet owned Wing has seen minor success with its service, with its operations completing its 100,000th delivery while operating in three nations, including the US, Finland, and Australia.

Google is working on ‘Project Wolverine’ to enhance hearing ability

Jeet — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 06:38:10 +0000

Google currently has two in-house wearable devices — Pixel Buds and Glass Enterprise Edition, if we exclude the Fitbit lineup. A new leak reveals a device from the company that enables user to isolate audio to focus on a specific person or source.

As per the report, Google’s parent company Alphabet’s X Moonshot Factory is working on a new wearable device which is codenamed “Wolverine.” The product is reportedly focused on enhancing the hearing ability of users.

The project is reportedly in the works since 2018 and it lets users “focus on one particular speaker in a group setting with overlapping conversations.” It is achieved through an in-ear device which is “packed with sensors” and microphones.

The device has other capabilities beyond speech isolation, and the team is actively working on expanding its utility. However, the other applications of this new project haven’t been spelled out by the team.

It appears that Project Wolverine won’t be limited to just a since device or application but the company is planning to turn it into a business model. Alphabet‘s X chief Astro Teller and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have received early demos. Given that the project is in the early stages and similar to other such projects from Google, this one too can be shelved if the company doesn’t come up with a viable business plan.

Several Google workers in the U.S form the tech firm’s first union

Jed John Ikoba — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:26:49 +0000

In furtherance of mounting protests over unfavorable working conditions, over 200 workers from Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc have formed a labor union for the U.S. and Canadian offices of the firms. The forming of the labor union is a culmination of several years of protests over working conditions and business practices at Google, which were always truncated by the internet search giant, but this time around the workers were able to muster the numbers to force the formation of the union.

The workers feel that the union, christened Alphabet Workers Union, will better shield members from many unfair business practices that they have accused the company of foisting on employees, including firings and other forms of retaliation, and enable workers to enjoy a more stable and employee-friendly workspace.

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The union now forms part of the Communications Workers of America union to which Alphabet members will pay dues of 1% of their overall compensation.
A Google executive, Kara Silverstein, director of people operations, said on Monday that Google supports its employees’ labor rights and will continue engaging directly with all its workers.

In the unfolding dynamics, it would seem that Google still holds the aces, as the union is yet to have the numbers needed to force the company into collective bargaining agreements over wages or other workplace welfare issues. U.S. labor laws stipulate that companies can ignore such minority unions’ demands until such agitations have the buy-in of the majority of employees. In addition, the union plans to represent third-party contractors, a class of workers whose demands Alphabet also may ignore.

The leadership of the union has acknowledged that the needed support from their colleagues may not be gotten at this early stage. Most companies with above-average salaries and perks usually use all means to discourage unionization, which may put them in a position of weakness when dealing with employees. However, unionism and labor activism is gradually entering into the tech industry as workers and regulators grapple for control of the welfare narrative amidst increasing profits.

The welfare practices at Google had recently come under scrutiny by the U.S. labor regulatory body, accusing the company of unlawfully querying hundreds of protesting workers who were protesting against the company’s unfair and anti-unionization policies. These workers were subsequently sacked by the company, although Google insists that it acted within the law, in taking those actions.

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(source)

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Chinese search giant Baidu reportedly considers manufacturing electric vehicles

Jed John Ikoba — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 15:58:05 +0000

China’s search giant, Baidu Inc is putting plans afoot to actualize the design and production of its own electric vehicles. In actualizing the plans, the company has had discussions with some automakers. This latest move pits Baidu in line as the race among tech firms to develop smart cars gathers momentum.

The search-engine giant is also into the design and development of autonomous vehicles and internet connectivity infrastructure and will consider contracting the manufacturing, to an automaker or in the alternative, create a majority-owned company with automakers.

Baidu thus joins its peers like Tencent Holdings, Amazon, and Alphabet, which have done a lot in research and development in automobile technology or invested in smart-car auto firms.

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Baidu has held preliminary talks, although no definitive decisions were reached, with some Chinese automakers on possible business collaboration, insiders have said. The insiders spoke under the cover of anonymity since they were not authorized by Baidu to speak on the issue.

Baidu on their part declined to comment on the matter. The automaker, GAC, mentioned among those that have had discussions with Baidu, stated that it has a strategic partnership with the search giant and that any further cooperation was subject to discussion. Geely said it was not aware of such talks while FAW failed to respond to inquiries.

Baidu established its autonomous driving division Apollo in 2017 and it supplies AI-generated technology and other ancillary jobs to automakers such as Geely, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Ford.

Baidu also operates autonomous taxi service Go Robotaxi with safety drivers on board in Beijing and a growing number of Chinese cities, with plans to scale up expansion in the next three years. It recently got clearance to test five cars in Beijing unmanned.

Building cars would represent a dramatic shift in the company’s plans to diversify and shore up income forecasts outside its core business model as a search engine, where revenues fell short of projections in 2019.

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(source)

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Google smartphone sales doubled last quarter thanks to the Google Pixel 3a series

Jeet — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 05:50:26 +0000

Earlier this year, Google launched its first comparatively budget smartphones under its Pixel series — Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL and it seems that the gamble of the search engine giant is paying off.

As per the earnings report for the second quarter of the year posted by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, the company reported about 40 percent increase year-on-year in the “Other Revenue” segment, which includes Google’s hardware business as well as cloud computing division.

Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL

During the earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that “with the launch of Pixel 3A in May, overall Pixel unit sales in Q2 grew more than two times year over year.” It’s noteworthy that Google has never revealed concrete Pixel sales numbers before, so we don’t exactly know how many more units this increase involves.

Also, the company doesn’t separate out its Other Revenues segment into different categories. So it can’t be said certainly that the 40 percent jump is mostly attributable to those extra Pixel sales but it’s fair to say that it likely contributed significantly.

Overall, Google’s parent company Alphabet posted its second-quarter earnings for 2019 beating Wall Street expectations with revenue of $38.9 billion and a profit of $9.9 billion. The profit dwarfs that of the second quarter of 2018 when Google had to dock its net income by a record $5 billion over the antitrust settlement.

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Both the smartphones, Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL comes with an OLED display with Asahi’s Dragontrail glass protection. The devices are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

The smartphones feature a 12.2MP Sony IMX363 primary rear camera and an 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera. All the camera features you love on the Pixel 3 such as Night Sight, Top Shot, HDR+, and Super Res Zoom are present on both devices.

The devices come with a 3.5mm audio jack, support for USB-C audio, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, and Active Edge. The 3a has a 3000mAh battery while the 3a XL has a 3700mAh and both supports 18W fast charging.

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Huawei join Samsung, Alphabet in top 5 R&D investors for 2018

Habeeb Onawole — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 12:06:52 +0000

Research and Development or R&D as it is commonly called is an important part of any industry. Every year, companies set a budget for the department whose job includes creating new materials, developing new solutions and lots more.

The European Commission has released a list ranking the top R&D investors for 2018 and the list shows China’s Huawei beating companies like America’s Apple, Qualcomm, and Facebook.

The EU list puts Huawei as the Chinese company with the highest investment in R&D with a sum of €11.33 billion (¥89 billion). Globally, Huawei ranks 5th on the list. However, Huawei’s investment in R&D is said to have decreased slightly compared to last year’s.

There are a total of 438 Chinese companies on the list and they all invested a total of €71.2 billion, an increase of 20% when compared to the preceding year. 44% of the companies invested in ICT, 11.4% invested in the automotive industry and just 3.4% invested in health-related research.

On the global scene, Samsung is top on the EU’s list with a figure of €13.4 billion and is closely followed by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Germany’s Volkswagen comes in at the third spot and Microsoft is 4th. Apple is trailing behind Huawei and Intel and claims the 7th spot with a total investment of €9.7 billion.

Switzerland’s Roche is the first healthcare company on the list and claims the 8th position with a sum of €8.9 billion. Qualcomm is far down at number 28 with just €4.6 billion but the EU says it has moved up 64 spots since 2004.

(Sources: 1, 2)

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HTC Shares Suspended on Taiwanese Stock Exchange Over Google Takeover Rumors

Jed John Ikoba — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:47:07 +0000

About two weeks ago, we brought you a report which emerged from China and alleges that Google was in talks with HTC to buy the ailing smartphone manufacturing company. Looks like it is not just a mere rumor as reports emanating from Taiwan indicates that HTC’s shares are set to be suspended from trading on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange with effect from Thursday and the planned take over by Googl’s parent company Alphabet is fingered to be the cause of this suspension.

While no oficial statement has been issued either by Google or HTC or even the authorities of the Taiwanese Stock Exchange where the company is listed. HTC in a recent statement issued in response to an earlier report in the China Times, and a request from the Taiwanese Stock Exchange stated among other things that it “does not comment on market rumour or speculation”. It is unknown if the once bubble smartphone giant officially responded to the request by the TSE and if they did, what their response was. But the decision to suspend trading on HTC’s stock may be an affirmation that the deal is about to be sealed between both parties.

HTC has recently been struggling to grab a piece of the market share. The company happened to occupyy a lofty position a few years back. As a matter of fact, HTC was the world’s fifth highest grossing smartphone manufacturer just five years ago with a market share of about 9%. Now, the company’s shares stands at 1% of the entire market and no doubt debts would be mounting.

Apar from the smartphone arm, there is also the Vive business. The VR arm had earlier featured in rumors speculating that HTC would sell the Vive business or the entire business soon. It is likely Alphabet would get the entire portfolio if the deal sails through. However, what remains unclear is why Google wants to buy an ailing company even though the U.S giant worth $100 billion is well capable of inheriting HTC’s liabilities in addition to its assets. It remains tobe seen if Google will turn the company around or if it would be a repreat of the Motorola Mobility deal which Google bought for $12.5billion but sold the company to Lenovo three years later. But in this case, since HTC manufacture’s Google’s Pixel phones, Google may be looking to set up its own full-fledge smartphoe manufacturing arm which would no doubt be a wise move considering the software aspect is already taken care of with Google’s Android OS.

HTC’s shares closed at 2.5% higher on Wednesday, a pointer to speculatin that an official announcement could have seen a rapid surge in the share prices of the company as more persons ould have attempted to buy the company’s shares.

(source)

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