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Report: US might block Google-backed LA-Hong Kong undersea cable over national security

Google has three approaches for expanding its global fiber network. Recently, the company has been building private intercontinental cables, but still buys capacity or joins consortiums where the cost is split. One Google-backed undersea cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong could be blocked by the US under national security concerns.


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Google CEO says China requires trade-offs, but ‘not close’ to search engine relaunch

A report that Google is planning to relaunch its search engine in China, giving in to government demands for a censored version, has understandably triggered a huge amount of opposition to the idea – not least from its own employees.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin have responded by saying that while they are looking at how to do more business in China, the company is ‘not close’ to relaunching its search engine there …


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Google marks a significant return to China with Maps relaunch for web, iOS [Update: Nope]

Update: According to a Google spokesperson, the company has not made any announcements or changes to Maps for China. A web version has been available in the country “for years.” Nikkei was also incorrect about the launch of an iOS client on Apple’s App Store, with no Android app either.


In recent months, Google’s presence within China has increased following its 2010 exit over a refusal to self-censor content. Today, the company is taking a big step with the launch of a China-specific version of Google Maps.


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Samsung smartphone shipments fell by 60% in China in Q1 2017 as local brands bite

Samsung smartphone shipments fell by 60% year-on-year in China during the first quarter of the year according to Counterpoint Research data. The company saw its market share in the country slashed from 8.6% in Q1 2016 to 3.3% Q1 2017.

The main reason for the fall at a time when smartphone sales in China are still growing was far stronger competition from local brands …


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The OnePlus 3 will be fully unveiled on June 15 (at least in China)

There’s very little we don’t know about the OnePlus 3. The Chinese company’s flagship’s marketing campaign has been boiling up for some time now, and between that and an array of leaked specs it’s only the official launch date we didn’t know.

According to a post submitted by OnePlus on Weibo, it looks like the wait won’t be long, with a June 15 date slated for its final unveiling…


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HTC reportedly sold only 251 HTC 10 units in China so far, plans to spin off its VR division

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And it seems as if HTC’s downward spiral continues. The latest in its seemingly never-ending doomsday news cycle comes today in the form of a pair of reports from Focus Taiwan, with the former suggesting that the lower-specced HTC 10 has been an absolute flop in China and the latter saying that the company has formed a completely separate company for its VR ambitions


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Supply-chain report says Xiaomi, Huawei & other Chinese brands being hit hard by iPhone SE on home turf

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While Xiaomi and Huawei may be battling it out for the top spot in China, both brands are reportedly being hit hard by Apple’s cheapest-ever iPhone, the iPhone SE.

It was previously reported that third-party retailers in the country received 3.4M preorders before the iPhone SE went on sale, and now a supply-chain report says that Apple is taking market share from local brands.


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Lenovo-backed Zuk unveils its new Z2 Pro, with 6GB of RAM, f1.8 OIS camera, Snapdragon 820, more

Zuk Z2 Pro

The spring hardware refresh seems to be on a roll, and this year, in addition to the usual Samsungs, LGs and HTCs, a slew of Chinese manufacturers are making their way to the market with improved, highly-specced and often premium designed high end handsets.

While not all of them make it to the West, at least initially — like the just unveiled LeEco “superphones” — these devices are certainly worthy of consideration. One of them is the Zuk Z2 Pro, the new flagship of the Lenovo-backed Chinese brand that wrapped up the presentation earlier today


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Google Play Store continues to lag behind iOS App Store in revenue despite advantage in downloads

For both Google and Apple, the operations on their virtual stores are hugely important, as they account for millions of dollars. However, there has historically been a disparity between the number of downloaded applications and the actual money generated by them, a trend that seems to have peaked in the first quarter of this year.

According to App Annie‘s Index Market for Q1 of 2016, in fact, Google’s Play Store saw a number of downloads that roughly doubles that of the iOS App Store, which in turns represents the platform with the highest profitability, with over 90% more revenue generated over its counterpart…


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A plethora of new Huawei P9 images just leaked on Weibo [Gallery]

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Huawei’s upcoming P9 flagship has pretty much been completely revealed at this point, but ten or so more leaked images of the phone in the flesh can’t hurt, right? The phone, set to be announced early next month in London, will see the addition of a dual-camera set up, a new fingerprint sensor on the back, and of course upgraded specs compared to the P8…


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Galaxy S7 and S7 edge pre-orders are ‘stronger than expected’, Samsung exec says

There is no denying that Samsung put a lot of effort into the making of this year’s new flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Despite having faced several difficulties regarding sales and profit margins, along other Android OEMs, the South Korean giant looks to be on the right track regarding numbers for the newest flagships.

Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s handsets business, mentioned during a press briefing that the company saw strong pre-order numbers for the Galaxy S7 phones, saying that they were ‘stronger than expected’…


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Voxer’s CTO just left to join Google — could walkie talkie features be coming to Hangouts?

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Voxer is a relatively popular messaging app for Android and iOS, and has long been considered one of the best solutions available for those looking for a great PPT (push-to-talk) experience on mobile. It received a ton of funding a few years ago, and while it never really took off in the mainstream, it’s still being updated even today with new fixes and features for its dedicated group of users. It has somewhere between 10 and 50 million Play Store installs.

George Kola, a software engineer that was most recently Chief Technology Officer of the company for more than a year, has now joined Google according to his LinkedIn profile. While it’s of course possible that Kola could have joined Google on his engineering merit alone and could be working in just about any department within the Mountain View company, it’s still worth asking: Could Google possibly have its eyes on bringing some walkie talkie features to Hangouts?..


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Xiaomi retained top spot in China in 2015, but Huawei likely to hit back this year, says Canalys

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While Canalys reported last year that Huawei overtook Xiaomi to become the biggest-selling smartphone manufacturer in China during Q3, it now says strong Q4 sales enabled Xiaomi to retake the top slot for the year. It says Xiaomi ended the year with a 15.2% market share against 14.7% for Huawei, with Apple following at 12.5%.

The WSJ reports that this view is echoed by rival market intelligence company Strategy Analytics. However, with more Chinese consumers looking to upgrade to mid-range handsets this year, Canalys analyst Nicole Peng believes the positions could be reversed during the course of this year …


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Xiaomi planning more ‘Mi Home’ stores in hopes of doubling offline smartphone sales

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, speaks at a launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. China's Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY LOGO) - RTR3ZN52

Xiaomi is openly facing increased competition as it missed its 2015 target of selling 80 million phones—the 70 million devices they did sell is a clear miss compared to an optimistic 80-100 million device target. According to a Reuters report, the Chinese company that fashions itself as the Apple of China is now planning new stores in hopes of doubling offline smartphone sales…


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Xiaomi’s $46B valuation questioned as company misses sales target, faces greater competition

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, speaks at a launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. China's Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY LOGO) - RTR3ZN52

Investors are “beginning to question” Xiaomi’s $46B valuation after the company reportedly failed to hit its sales target of 80M smartphones in 2015, reports the WSJ. That target was itself reduced from 100M last summer, and the company has also not yet delivered on its promise of substantial revenue from Internet services.

Xiaomi has faced tougher competition from more established brands like Huawei.

Huawei’s engineering strength and brand image, built up over decades, make it difficult for Xiaomi to compete in China, analysts say.

“The competition in China’s smartphone market has intensified tremendously this year,” said a Xiaomi spokeswoman, who declined to comment on the company’s valuation or say whether it met its 2015 sales target.

Huawei comfortably overtook Xiaomi to become the Chinese market leader in October of last year …


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Lenovo chief: Google Play Services will be in China this year

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According to a report by Tech.Sina, Google will finally bring its services in to China. Lenovo chief, Chen Xudong claims Google is on track to bring its Play Services to the nation at some point in 2016, and that its desire to do so isn’t a secret. Google wants its services back in China, but has faced strong opposition from the government in the past, heavily restricting its presence there.

While Android has long been the dominant smartphone platform in China, Google’s presence there is still very limited. In fact, Google Play Services are practically non-existent. Before the Nexus 6P was built, it was rumored by a reliable publication that Google had chosen Huawei specifically because of its influence in China. With Huawei being a Chinese brand, and the biggest seller of smartphones in the country, its influence is huge. What’s more, Google also recently partnered with (and took a minor stake in) Mobvoi, one of the most widely-used and advanced Chinese AI and voice recognition companies.

Clearly, with Android being the most widely-used smartphone OS in China, Play Services aren’t required or critical to the platform’s success. Bringing Play Services in to China would mostly be an effort to help end fragmentation in a country where multiple app stores exist for Android.

No specific timeframe was given in terms of when we might see Google Play back in China. One can only assume getting the service approved takes multiple jumps over political hurdles and cutting through endless miles of red tape. We’ll keep you updated when/if there’s any more to share on the issue.