Here's how China's Huawei, Oppo are challenging Apple, Samsung's dominance

Apple and Samsung’s domination of the smartphone world is being challenged like never before, with Chinese companies muscling in with cheaper and just as innovative devices.
In an ominous sign for the tech titans - whose iPhone and Galaxy handsets have had a stranglehold on the almost $500 billion market for years -- China’s Huawei Technologies Co. has unseated Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker. Now, it’s setting its sights on No. 1 Samsung, which has seen disappointing profits as Chinese phones gain share of a market that looks increasingly like it has peaked.

And others are not far behind. Here are the players -- and phones -- to watch:

Huawei: The Big Threat

Based in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, Huawei is ploughing cash into bolstering its phones’ camera capabilities in a quest to dominate. Its flagship P20 Pro boasts a three-lens camera that was co-engineered with the 104-year-old German camera maker Leica. Huawei also offers a shiny, rainbow-effect handset finish known as Twilight, differentiating their product from the many monotone smartphones on the market.

The real story behind the huge crowds gathered at iPhone launches

Apple’s special edition iPhone X release – like the new iPhones before it – brings thousands of people lining up in front of Apple stores around the globe. It raises the seemingly obvious question: what sane person would queue overnight for an over-priced, at best incrementally-changed gadget?

But what sounds like a question for psychologists, may actually be better addressed as a matter of the way media and markets work.

You’d be forgiven for expecting this article to be a rant about the blatant consumerism of the people that stand in line – many overnight – to get the latest iPhone. Or against the world’s obsession with smartphones more generally. After ten years of extensive media coverage of each launch, we’ve all grown used to the clichéd pictures of “die-hard fans” queuing outside Apple stores.

Many regularly express their profound dislike of the practice. One commentator called the iPhone 6 queues a “giant cocktail of wrongness and irrationality”. Samsung even ran a series of commercials to mock the infamous queues.

At the same time, marketing experts celebrate Apple for its seemingly magical ability to electrify the masses and mobilise thousands of people to line up for days. It has become a custom among admirers and critics alike to compare the relationship between Apple and its loyal customers with religions and mystical cults. What we are told is a story of powerful symbols and an idolised brand on one side, meeting irrational lemmings on the other.

Yet, there is also evidence suggesting that iPhone queues may be the result of something much more banal than the “mythical power of symbols, icons and stories”. And what if iPhone queuers weren’t irrational hedonists, but were acting more like calculating entrepreneurs?
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Apple shares at record high on better than expected iPhone sales

Apple Inc on Tuesday delivered surprisingly strong third-quarter earnings and signalled that its upcoming 10th-anniversary phone lineup is on schedule, driving the stock up 6 per cent to an all-time high in after-hours trading.

The stock climbed above its intraday record high to $159.10 after the company reported better-than-expected iPhone sales, revenue and earnings per share. The stock price move was expected to help drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the 22,000 mark on Wednesday.

Apple also said it hit a milestone of 1.2 billion iPhones sold.

The April-June quarter is traditionally a soft one for Apple as the market waits for the September launch of new iPhone models. But Tuesday’s results show that iPhone buyers may be less inclined than they once were to delay purchases until a new model is out.

The iPad product lines also showed unexpected strength, service revenue continues to grow at a healthy clip, and even the much-maligned Apple Watch showed a 50 per cent sales increase.

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Foxconn to set up $10-bn manufacturing unit in US to create 3k jobs: Trump

United States (US) President Donald Trump has said that Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn will setup a manufacturing unit in Wisconsin with an investment of $10 billion, which will create over 3,000 jobs for Americans.

The company is the largest manufacturer of iPhones for Apple.

"I'm pleased to announce that Foxconn, a world leader in manufacturing for computers, communications and consumer electronics... Will build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for the production of LCD panel products in Wisconsin, investing many, many billions of dollars right here in America and creating thousands of jobs, and I mean American jobs," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

He was accompanied by Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, Vice-President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

He called Gou "one of the great businessmen anywhere in the world".

"I would see Terry, and I would say Terry, you have to give us one of these massive places you do great work with," he added.

The president said that Foxconn's initial investment of more than $10 billion will create 3,000 jobs at a minimum, with the potential for up to 13,000 jobs in the very near future.
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