Apple takes no risks with its launches. The event is back to its usual time but while the production quality of the event was better than ever, the products themselves only inched forward which I think will not have users rushing out to replace the devices they purchased last year or even the year before. This, of course, is caveated...
The state seals Ant Group’s fate. Further interventions into Ant group by the regulator ensure that the businesses will be less nimble, less efficient, and less innovative but more importantly, state-controlled with the state having full access to all of the financial data of Chinese citizens. This is bad news for the fintech sector in China which will now have...
Epic lands a blow but not the knockout it was looking for. The verdict is a big win for Epic Games when comes to money, but Epic has failed to convince the judge that Apple is an evil monopolist empire that should be dismantled. This was always very much on the cards as the judge had previously stated before retiring...
SMIC’s expansion highlights China’s difficulty in semiconductors. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is expanding its capacity, but its plans betray its limitations meaning that its 10nm aspirations are probably vapourware and that it will never compete in the big leagues. SMIC has announced that it will spend $8.9bn on a new fab in Shanghai that will be able to produce...
There is much worse ahead. Although the real regulatory hammer has yet to fall on Tencent, it is being hit far harder than I expected in other areas meaning that when all is said and done, Tencent will be a pale shadow of its former self. Chinese regulators summoned the games companies to meetings to discuss their fate in what...
Nonsensical notion takes another hit. The defection of Apple’s car chief, Doug Field, is being seen as a huge blow for Apple’s ambitions to make a vehicle but seeing as this was very unlikely to ever materialise, it is not particularly big news. Doug Field is moving to Ford where he will be responsible for advanced technology and embedded systems...
State intervention will be detrimental in the long term. Part of the remedies imposed by the Chinese regulator could be a move to effective state control and a delisting from the US which I continue to believe will do more harm to China’s technology ambitions than the USA will ever accomplish on its own. China’s regulators are annoyed with Didi...
The concession that brings down the house. Apple’s most recent changes to its App Store policy look like little more than an attempt to win favour with both the US Government which is considering antitrust action and the judge currently considering her verdict in the Apple vs Epic battle royale. Apple is hoping that this will put the debate to...
Very little to see here. The notion that Arm China has pilfered Arm’s IP and is selling it to Chinese customers makes no sense because even if it were true, those customers would be unable to sell a device outside of China without being hit with a large stack of lawsuits. It is not difficult to draw this conclusion when...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Didi – Blood in the water pt. II
Half of Didi’s opportunity has already been lost. Didi appears to have lost 30% of its user base (and 50% of its opportunity) since the crackdown on its business which combined with the state backing one of its rivals opens the possibility that Beijing intends to drive Didi out of business. Aurora mobile is a provider of big data solutions...