Following the European Union’s DMA (Digital Market Act) that moved Apple to compliance, it appears that Australia is planning on cracking down on the dominance of tech giants as well.

Tech giants may face new competition scrutiny in Australia

For those unaware, many regions and governments are facing issues in challenging the dominance of tech giants in the digital market. EU set a major example as it managed to make Apple comply with its stricter regulations. Apple had a closed ecosystem with its App Store but recently allowed third party app stores in Europe. Australia is seeking to repeat this miracle and is pushing for new competition laws in the digital realms as well.

The latest report from Reuters states that Australia’s competition agency is advocating for new laws that will adapt to the rapid growth of digital platforms like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple in the region. The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) added in a recent report that the Digital Platform Services Inquiry is concerned over the increased risk of wrongful behavior from these platforms.

These wrongfu behaviors could include invasive data gathering and locking in customers into a specific ecosystem and restricting their choices. ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said “Our proposed reforms include a call for targeted consumer protections and service-specific codes to prevent anti-competitive conduct by particular designated digital platforms.”

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BYD is gearing up to launch a number of its electric vehicle in Australia. One of these includes the Dolphin, which is an electric city car that will be available through a local distributor in the country.

According to a Drive report, the known Chinese automobiles maker will sell the new BYD Dolphin Electric Hatchback from EVDirect. The car is simply called Dolphin in the company’s home market and will be the brand’s second electric vehicle to be sold in Australia, following the Atto 3, which is a small SUV that will start being delivered later this year in July 2022. On the other hand, the Dolphin electric hatchback is set to be released sometime by December 2022.

For those unaware, the Dolphin was initially meant to be the first mass produced BYD electric vehicle that would be sold in Australia. However, the company changed their plans in the middle of last year. As of right now, there are no details available regarding the pricing for the hatchback. Although, considering that the Dolphin is smaller than the Atto 3, we can expect that it will feature smaller batteries that would make it cheaper than the 44,000 Australian Dollars small SUV.

As per EVDirect and its CEO Luke Todd, the Dolphin will be priced “well under 35,000 Australian Dollars.” Looking at its price range and size, the Dolphin will also compete with popular city cars in Australia like the MG 3, Kia Rio, and Volkswagen Polo. EVDireect is targeting a December 2022 launch, if there are no unforeseen delays that surface.

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Earlier this week, the Australian competition watchdog might soon have Apple and Google address their dominating market power with their app stores, namely iOS App Store and the Play Store.

According to a Reuters report, these major tech giants might have regulations if they do not make changes regarding this matter. For those unaware, both Apple and Google have been facing pressure from various governments across the globe due to their major market dominance. Both firms charge developers and other firms a commission on any in app purchases made through their respective application platforms. Thus, this might lead to the Australian government passing regulations against both companies.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) stated that app developers should be allowed to provide customers with an alternative method of payments. Furthermore, the data collected from Google and Apple should be kept separate from their operations. Similarly, the ACCC even urged tech giants to allow consumers to change or remove pre installed or even default apps.

As per ACCC Chair Rod Sims, “We have identified a number of areas where action is required and have put forward potential measures to address areas of particular concern. There is a window of opportunity for Apple and Google themselves to take steps to improve outcomes for app developers and consumers.” Sims further added that the ACCC would look at changes of laws in other countries and other proposals but “regulation may be required if Apple and Google fail to take steps to address the concerns identified.”

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A few days back, in a massive escalation of the brewing tensions between Facebook and the Australian government, the social networking company effectively banned all news content that originated from Australia from being seen by Aussies. This was a direct response to the new law that sought to compel Facebook and others to pay publishers for news content displayed on their platforms.

The ban seriously affected many government agencies and departments, who were unable to provide information to the public on relevant issues of concern. The fire department, the postal authority, and several other departments had to bear the brunt of the shut-out.

The ripples trailing the action of Facebook to ban news content in Australia has started reverberating, as the government has responded by claiming that the action of Facebook had severely endangered public safety, even as the country continues to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The government, through a high-ranking official, Josh Frydenberg, stated that the government will not sit idly as Facebook attempts to bully Australia to tow its line by jettisoning the new legislation. Frydenberg claimed that public safety was gravely trampled upon by the action of Facebook, as persons seeking information on vaccines for the COVID-19 were unable to get it because of the news shut down by Facebook.

The information blackout is projected to have affected millions of Australians who rely on most of these government pages for vital information and warnings on different aspects that enhance public safety. Although the position of Facebook was to ban content from news publishers, several of these public institutions and agencies were the ones that took a huge hit by the action, even though they may not be considered as news producers in the actual sense.

Although Facebook had issued a statement that all accounts that were wrongfully affected by the ban would be restored, there are reports that the shut-out still persists at this moment in some areas, while most of the public pages including those of health facilities had been restored.

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Microsoft is pushing its search engine, Bing, in Australia, as uncertainty rises regarding Google continuing the service of its own search engine in the region. The company even recently talked with the nation’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

For those unaware, the Australian government recently introduced a new regulation that would require payments to media outlets by tech giants like Google. According to a Reuters report, this would essentially force payments from social media giants like Facebook as well. These payments would go towards domestic media outlets whose content links are what drives the traffic to these major platforms.

Thus, the big tech companies have called the law “unworkable” and stated that they would be withdrawing a few of their key services from Australia if the new regulations were enforced. This would have the withdrawal of Google’s search engine from the region, which accounts for nearly 94 percent of the nation’s search engine market at the moment.

Furthermore, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, spoke to the Prime Minister about the new regulations and even added that the company was ready to expand its influence in the region through its proprietary search engine Bing, which is the world’s second largest search engine at the moment. Morrison stated that “I can tell you, Microsoft’s pretty confident, when I spoke to Satya. We just want the rules in the digital world to be the same that exist in the real world, in the physical world.”

A spokesperson from Microsoft also confirmed the discussion but declined on revealing any more information as of right now. The official further added that “We recognize the importance of a vibrant media sector and public interest journalism in a democracy and we recognize the challenges the media sector has faced over many years through changing business models and consumer preferences.” Unfortunately, Google has yet to respond to this matter.

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Last week, Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy SmartTag/SmartTag+ at the first-ever Unpacked event of 2021. These phones, in particular, come in a wide variety of colors. Samsung even announced certain custom colors for the Plus and Ultra models. Now, out of nowhere, an unannounced special color of the Galaxy S21+ emerges on Samsung Australia’s official website.

Samsung has begun to take pre-orders for the newly announced Galaxy S21 series worldwide. Interestingly, on the company’s Australian website (FAQ section), it has listed an exclusive color called Phantom Green. This variant of the handset has the following SKU IDs.

• SM-G996BZGAXSA – Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green (8GB + 128GB)
• SM-G996BZGEXSA – Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green (8GB + 256GB)

For those unaware, the custom color variants of Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra are exclusive to Samsung eStore. At the launch event, the South Korean tech giant only revealed two custom colors for the Galaxy S21+, namely Phantom Red and Phantom Gold, in addition to the standard colors – Phantom Silver, Phantom Violet, and Phantom Black.

Hence, it is surprising to know the existence of third custom color. But unfortunately, there are no renders of this version. And therefore, LetsGoDigital has published renders of Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green based on Galaxy S20 FE Cloud Mint, in partnership with designer Giuseppe Spinelli.

That said, we expect Samsung to extend the availability of this custom color to more markets in the near future.

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Huawei is apparently calling on the Australian government to begin the initiative of rolling out the next generation of telecommunications. The company seeks to cooperate with the government for 6G networking.

According to an SMH report, the Chinese telecom equipment maker wants the government to talk to the company on how to roll out the next generation of mobile networking technology, or 6G. This time it aims at working closely with the government to avoid a ban, which it faced for the nation’s 5G network. In other words, it is also another attempt to reverse its original ban from working on Australia’s 5G roll out and aims at working with the government for research and development of 6G networking.

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As per Huawei Australia’s director of corporate affairs Jeremy Mitchell, it is still “not too late” for the company to supply the country with telecommunications equipment for its 5G infrastructure, but he also believes that “it is very unlikely.” The official added that “The conversation we now want to have with the Australian government is what do we do when 6G or 7G comes, because like it or not Huawei or another Chinese company will be the leader in this area,” and that “We would like to work with the government to ensure Australia has access to the best technology but do so in a way which gives security agencies confidence in terms of risk mitigation.”

Mitchel believes that “6G is just at the very beginning of research development but it’s important to get in now to understand where this technology is going.” For those unaware, Huawei faced a ban by the Australian government over its participation in the 5G roll out as it was a “high risk vendor,” which might be under the influence of a foreign government and its interest that might conflict with Australian law. Thus, the move from the Chinese company might be seen as an attempt to scrap the ban, with Mitchell even bringing the example of Ericsson lobbying against the Swedish government over a similar Huawei 5G ban as an example.

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Earlier today (31st August 2020), Huawei announced that it is terminating its sponsorship of an Australian rugby league team a year earlier than planned after certain issues within its business in the region.

According to an official statement from the company, Huawei is ending its sponsorship of the Canberra Raiders at the end of the 2020 season as “continued negative business environment is having a larger than originally forecasted impact on our planned revenue stream.” The news arrives amid the increasing political tensions between Australia and China.

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At the moment, the national rugby league team is seeking to distance itself from Beijing, after various concerns have arisen regarding trade and security. Currently, Australia has become the first country in the world to have banned Huawei completely from its 5G network infrastructure over the grounds of national security. Since then, Australia and China have had their relationships soured, with even lower points in their relationship being reached during the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to Jeremy Mitchell, a Huawei Australia executive, “Even after the Turnbull government banned us from 5G we managed to find the resources to continue the sponsorship but we just can’t financially support it any longer.” The Chinese tech giant has backed the team for nearly a decade now, and will still keep its name on the team’s training center along with a place on the rear of the football jersey.

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Oppo has been updating its devices to ColorOS 7 based on Android 10 for weeks now. But it is yet to roll out updates in all the regions. Two weeks back, the Chinese smartphone maker updated some of its handsets like Reno 2, Reno Z, F11 series, and others in some global markets. Now, today, the official Twitter account of ColorOS shared update timeline for 17 smartphones sold in countries across Europe and Australia.

Here’s the list of 17 Oppo devices and their respective ColorOS 7 update timeline for Europe and Australia.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Edition

Oppo Reno

Oppo Reno 5G

Oppo R17

Oppo R17 Pro / RX17 Pro

Oppo Find X Series

Oppo A5 2020, A9 2020

Oppo Reno 2

Oppo Reno Z

Oppo Reno 2 Z

Oppo F9, F9 Pro

Oppo F7, F7 128GB

Oppo R15

Oppo R15 Pro

Oppo A91

As usual, the updates will be rolled out in batches and hence it may take time to reach every device. Optionally, users can go to Settings -> Software Update on their phones to manually check and download the update during the given time.

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The smartphone wars are getting interesting this year, especially between Samsung and Huawei. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer placed a giant P30 Pro billboard on top of the Samsung store at a Brisbane shopping mall. Flagship devices from both the companies – Huawei  P30 series and Samsung Galaxy S10 series come with high-end features. The manufacturers are striving for different ways to corner-off the edge-to-edge competition between their respective smartphones.

Samsung and Huawei have indulged various times in similar battles over the recent past. In Dubai, Huawei placed a larger billboard advertising the P30 device against the Korean giant’s advertisement of the Galaxy S10. Huawei even mocked the Galaxy S10 with the P30 advanced features like 3D face recognition and others via its official Twitter handle. Huawei’s Trucks stopped-off last year at one of the Apple store carrying promotional billboards citing “Renaissance is coming.”

Notably, both smartphones carry striking features and have their own USPs over each other. We are going to see a great battle in terms of total sales in the coming years.

However, the Chinese smartphone maker overtook Apple last year to become the second largest smartphone maker. It is now looking for the top spot by displacing Samsung as the largest smartphone manufacturer.

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According to a recent report by IDC, Huawei surged 50 percent in Q1 2019, whereas Apple tumbled by 30% as compared to the same period last year. Samsung is still on top with 71.9 million shipments in the first quarter but witnessed an 8.1% drop over YoY basis.

(source | via)

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