Apple in India: expensive, but growing
India may be the world’s second largest mobile phone market by users but so far it hasn’t been a major focus for Apple. In the absence of the iPhone, Samsung and BlackBerry have led the way in the country.
More recently, however, that has begun to change. Just as BlackBerry launches its first smartphone in India under the BlackBerry 10 operating system, Apple is joining the fray with a big push in the developing market. Continue reading »
Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has imposed a recruitment freeze across almost all of its factories in China as it is cutting production of the iPhone 5.
The suspension in hiring by China’s largest private sector employer and the biggest assembler of Apple products is the first such countrywide move since the 2009 downturn induced by the financial crisis. It underscores the weakening demand for some Apple products, which has put pressure on the American company’s battered share price.
Apple in Brazil: still plenty to play for
Apple’s loss of the right to use its iPhone trademark in Brazil might look unjust.
After all, everyone knows the iPhone is one of the US giant’s most cherished products. But there is much more to the dispute than meets the eye. Continue reading »
Could Apple lose its iPhone trademark in Brazil?
Who invented the airplane? Many argue it was actually Alberto Santos-Dumont, a pioneer aviator from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Now it is claimed that Brazil also invented the iPhone before the US. Continue reading »
Apple’s big China weekend: how big?
All mobile phonemakers know just how important China is to their fortunes. With around a billion mobile phone customers, and many poised to upgrade to smartphones, the industry is at a crucial point.
So Apple followers and investors should be cheered by the company’s announcement on Monday that it sold over 2m units of its new iPhone 5 in China, just three days after the December 14 launch. Game over? Not quite. Continue reading »
HTC: Apple settlement – good news or temporary reprieve?
When the biggest beast in the jungle decides not to fight you any more, your survival chances go up a lot. That’s the message from HTC shares on Monday.
After the company and Apple announced a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement, shares in the Taiwanese phonemaker leapt up 6.86 per cent – its daily limit. But is this the turning point for HTC, which saw profits fall 80 per cent in the third quarter? Continue reading »
Foxconn soars on iPhone hopes
The iPhone’s importance to the electronics manufacturing world was illustrated clearly on Monday in Hong Kong, where shares in one of Hon Hai’s subsidiaries jumped as much as 40 per cent on hopes that it might start building the Apple devices.
Citi analysts spurred the move when they said that Taiwan-based Hon Hai’s problems recruiting for its iPhone factory in Zhengzhou had prompted it to shift some iPhone production to its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, Foxconn International Holdings. Citi put a buy on FIH for the first time in nearly three years and raised its 2013 earnings estimate for FIH by 134 per cent. Continue reading »
iPhone suppliers reflect little glory
Apple might have dreamt up the iPhone 5, but, as is well known, the designers in Cupertino don’t actually make it.
That would be done by (mostly) Asian companies, some large, some small, who each play quite different roles in the production process. So what impact did the launch of the device have on investors’ view of those companies? Continue reading »
A little less Samsung in Apple sourcing
Following Apple’s landmark US victory over Samsung last month in their high-profile technology disputes, rumours are rampant over their sourcing business relationship.
The rumours centre on Apple’s alleged diversification of its supply of microchips. Several media outlets reported on Friday that Apple dropped Samsung from its list of memory chip suppliers for the first batches of the much-anticipated iPhone 5, which is expected to be launched on Wednesday. Continue reading »
Chart of the week: how to sell smartphones in China
If last week’s chief executives travel plans were anything to go by, mobile phone makers are getting serious about China.
So which models are selling in China and which way is the market going? Chart of the week takes a look. Continue reading »
New Apple fake: sent from my iPhone
There seems to be no limit to Apple-related knock-offs in China. Last year, a fake Apple store in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming made waves, and fake iPhones and iPads are easily found all over the place.
Now, the latest idea is to pay for a fake ‘sent from my iPhone’ tagline. Continue reading »
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