China

Chinese analyst does not expect Apple to refresh iPhone SE anytime soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2017

iPhone SE is fifteen months old now, but don't hold your breath for any kind of hardware refresh to the smallest and most affordable Apple handset. That's according to Chinese analyst Pan Jiutang, who predicted Apple won't be refreshing iPhone SE because he doesn't think there's enough demand for the device since most consumers are looking for bigger phones.

The report should be taken with a grain of salt because Apple is now building “Assembled in India” iPhone SE models that it plans to eventually export. On top of that, the Cupertino tech giant is planning to expand local iPhone manufacturing in India.

In the US alone, more than five percent of the overall mobile phone sales apparently belong to iPhone SE. The 32-gigabyte edition of the device retails for $399 in the United States.

Powered by Apple's A9 chip, iPhone SE is compatible with iOS 11.

In my opinion, Apple would be wise to keep iPhone SE in its offering for another year or so in order to cater to the needs of people that prefer smaller, inexpensive handsets.

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Apple launches major Apple Pay promotion in China to gain market share

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

Apple today launched a large-scale Apple Pay promotion in China, offering various discounts and rewards to customers who would use Apple Pay between July 18 and July 24 to make purchases in participating merchants across mainland China.

Billed as the largest Apple Pay promotion to date in the 1.33 billion people country, it offers discounts of up to 50 percent and as much as 50 times the usual number of reward points for credit cards, with 17 Chinese banks offering 50 times the reward points accrued when transactions are made using credit cards registered with Apple Pay.

Apple's website lists 28 retail locations that are participating in the promotion, including international brands such as 7-Eleven, Watsons, Burger King, Starbucks and more.

JD.com along with an additional fifteen online merchants are part of the promo, too.

Apple Pay launched in China in February of last year.

“I am happy to see that Apple finally has decided to do something to gain market share in China,” IDC China's managing director Kitty Fok told South China Morning Post.

According to research firm Analysys, Chinese mobile payment market is dominated by Alibaba and Tencent, whose Alipay and WeChat Pay held respective 53.7 percent and 39.5 percent of the market as of the first quarter of 2017.

Alipay and WeChat Pay also offer various cash rebates or discounts now and then.

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Xiaomi acquires swathe of patents from Nokia

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 6, 2017

Chinese consumer electronics and smartphone maker Xiaomi has acquired a swathe of patents from Nokia. According to an announcement yesterday, the multi-year patent agreement includes a cross license to each company's cellular standard essential patents.

Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia for an undisclosed sum as part of the transaction. Since its inception seven years ago, the Chinese firm has applied for over 16,000 patents, of which about 4,000 have been granted to them.

“Our win-win patent agreement with Nokia after months of negotiations is a significant milestone for Xiaomi,” Wang Xian, Xiaomi's Senior Vice President, wrote on Twitter.

The two firms will also co-operate on a wide range of strategic projects, including network infrastructure, optical transport solutions for datacenter interconnect, IP routing based on Nokia's newly announced FP4 network processor and a data center fabric solution.

The companies will join forces to “explore” VR and AI technologies, too.

The latest move gives the Chinese startup access to some cool Nokia technologies while providing legal shelter from possible lawsuits as Xiaomi looks to expand internationally.

The company's smartphone shipments declined 15.6 percent to 61 million units in 2016, down from a peak of 70 million units in 2015. Xiaomi has pledged to build a thousand retail stores in China by 2019 to ramp up sales.

In May, Nokia signed a similar deal with Apple following licensing disputes in the US and Europe which eventually led to the removal of Nokia's Withings-branded products from Apple Stores. Putting an end to all litigation, the Apple-Nokia multi-year patent license also entails providing “certain network infrastructure products and services" to Apple.

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Check out this iPhone 8 clone with rear fingerprint sensor

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

The images of an iPhone 8 clone that hit the web yesterday give us a good indication what an iPhone 8 with a rear-mounted Touch ID sensor might look like. According to Benjamin Geskin, who tweeted out the rendered images, the device is based on an early iPhone 8 prototype.

The images were originally posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “All my sources said that this is totally wrong design,” Geskin cautioned, adding that iPhone 8 “is not going to look like that.”

The phone sports a slim bezels on the front face with no physical Home button.

On the back, we can clearly see a vertically stacked dual-lens camera and a Touch ID-like sensor, positioned below the Apple logo. The copycat device features an aluminum chassis.

iPhone 8, as you know, is said to feature a glass sandwich design in order to avoid any potential interference with its wireless charging components.

The placement of the fingerprint sensor on China's iPhone 8 clone actually makes sense to me: it's relatively easily reachable with one's index finger, as opposed to Galaxy S8's fingerprint sensor positioned next to the rear camera.

Some reports have suggested that one of the more than ten iPhone prototypes Apple has been testing has a rear Touch ID. Newer reports, however, have indicated that Apple has managed to integrate Touch ID into the display assembly after all.

Still, the company was smart enough to engineer an iPhone with a rear Touch ID as a fallback device, just in case.

To me, the biggest takeaway from looking at these renderings is that iPhones would look much better with some additional color options beyond the usual black, silver and gold choices.

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Chinese government takes issue with live streaming apps on App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2017

Chinese regulators have taken issue with live-streaming apps that can be downloaded from App Store. As Reuters said Wednesday citing the official Xinhua News Agency, a government body in China’s capital charged with regulating Internet services is planning to “summon” Apple and urge the company to “tighten its checks” regarding live-streaming apps on App Store.

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Guy builds DIY iPhone 6s for less than half the price of a new one

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2017

iPhone enthusiast and world traveller Scotty Allen has taken upon himself to build a fully functional, like-new iPhone 6s entirely from recycled parts purchased in China. After spending a cool $1,000 in parts, he used around $300 worth of parts in the actual phone, or less than half the price Apple is charging for a brand spanking new iPhone 6s.

He obtained a recycled logic board with the Touch ID sensor included and installed the display, the battery, the back casing and other components bought in Shenzen.

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Apple to build two new R&D centers in China, spend more than $500 million on research

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 17, 2017

Apple announced on Friday that it will be building two additional research and development centers in China, its major market. The new facilities will be built in Shanghai and Suzhou, joining Apple's upcoming R&D centers in Beijing and Shenzhen. All four facilities will open later in 2017. The company has allocated about 3.5 billion yuan, or approximately $507 million, on research institutions overall.

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Apple removes New York Times apps from Chinese App Store

Cody Lee ∙ January 4, 2017

Apple removed news apps created by The New York Times from the App Store in China late last month. The Times itself says that it spoke with the iPhone-maker, and it was told that the removal was in response to a request from Chinese authorities.

The Chinese government began blocking NYT websites in 2012, following a series of articles on the wealth amassed by the family of then-prime minister Wen Jiabao. This latest move limits access to one of its few remaining channels in the country.

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Apple reportedly partners with Foxconn on R&D facilities in China and Indonesia

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 26, 2016

Last month, Apple officially agreed to set up a research and development center in Indonesia. Now we learn from a report Monday by Chinese-language outlet Economic Daily News that the company's allegedly partnered with contract manufacturer Foxconn to accelerate the planned expansion into the Southeast Asia region. The report was cited by Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes.

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Apple partners with wind turbine maker Goldwind to bring more clean energy to Chinese suppliers

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 8, 2016

In an effort to help bring more clean energy to its Chinese suppliers, Apple and wind turbine maker Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology (also known as Goldwind) have entered into a cooperative joint venture agreement, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing spotted by the South China Morning Post newspaper.

Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment, a Goldwind subsidiary, will transfer its thirty percent stakes in four project firms that will stay subsidiaries under Goldwind for stock exchange purposes.

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