Daily Archives: January 10, 2013

From Inside Business column January 9, 2013

Tablets a bitter pill for the PC world

There are few greater indignities for a tech company than to be sought out by investors chasing dividend yield. The industry was founded on growth: yield is for old-economy investors who can’t stomach the risk of investing in the next big growth markets.

So spare a thought for the PC world, which in remarkably short order has become the tech world’s high-yield haven. After years of talk about a post-PC future, the alarms are now sounding loudly: rather than growth, accelerating decline is assumed in Wall Street’s forecasts. Read more

Posted in Tech | Permalink

Meet Donghoon Chang: the Jony Ive of Samsung

January 10, 2013 3:06 am by Tim Bradshaw

Samsung has been at the International Consumer Electronics Show in force this week, but despite its massive booth, 64th-floor parties and flashy press conference, perhaps its most interesting event happened on the sidelines.

Two dozen reporters crammed in to a small meeting room on Tuesday afternoon to quiz a panel of Samsung’s top designers from Seoul.

Their appearance at CES follows Samsung’s $1bn defeat in patent litigation against Apple last summer, where a jury found nearly all of the accused Samsung smartphones to have infringed Apple’s iPhone designs.

This was never addressed directly; instead, the event was focused on Samsung’s new “design identity 3.0”, which aims to “make it meaningful” – and on driving home the Korean giant’s designer credentials. Read more

Tags: CES, design, samsung
Posted in CES 2013, Consumer Electronics, Mobile | Permalink

From FT.com January 9, 2013

CES 2013 – Qualcomm takes centre stage

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 07: Qualcomm Inc., Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs speaks during a keynote address at the 2013 International CES at The Venetian on January 7, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 8-11 and is expected to feature 3,100 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 150,000 attendees. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Qualcomm’s “Born Mobile” sign towers over other billboards; its booth is one of the biggest and its chief executive delivered the main keynote speech, with appearances by music and film celebrities and even Sesame Street’s Big Bird.

For a company that has traditionally avoided the limelight and not emphasised its brand in its customers’ products, the world’s biggest maker of mobile chips by shipments appears to be using this year’s international Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as its coming-out party.