Missed call? Counting the cost of no-show Mobile World Congress

BERLIN -- For an event meant to showcase the power of telecoms, cancelling this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona without a back-up plan has perplexed many in the trillion-dollar sector.

Last week's decision to call off the telecoms industry's biggest annual gathering over fears of coronavirus, which has yet to reach mainland Spain, has left a hole in marketing budgets and dealt a $500 million blow to the local economy.

It has also raised questions about whether the 4-day event, which drew 110,000 visitors last year, has become too big for its own good, while missing an opportunity to use the very communications technology that it is meant to highlight.

Sony and Nokia said after pulling out of the event that they would hold product launches online instead, while South Korea's Samsung Electronics showcased a new folding phone at separate event in San Francisco last week.

The crisis began when South Korea's LG Electronics became the first company to scratch, triggering a spate of cancellations.

"The whole idea, that we've got to get tens of thousands of people together to meet, goes out of the window," Mike Rosenberg, an associate professor at the IESE business school in Barcelona, said of the decision to cancel February's event.


Rosenberg said that with China still battling the worst of the coronavirus outbreak, the GSMA mobile network operators group's next big conference in Shanghai this summer could also be at risk.

The Chinese province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak reported a record rise in deaths and thousands more cases on Thursday under a new diagnostic method, raising fresh questions about the scale of the crisis.

Spain has so far only reported two coronavirus cases - one in the Canary Islands off northwest Africa and a second on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Catalonia's top economic official, Pere Aragones, told Reuters he respected the cancellation decision but stressed that there was no public health danger in the Spanish region.

He called instead for a stronger alliance between the GSMA and Catalonia, adding that a way to do it would be for the organizers to extend the MWC presence in Barcelona beyond 2023, when the current contract ends.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR?

While major exhibitors can bear the cost, hundreds of smaller companies for whom MWC is the big event on their marketing agenda may think twice about returning, analysts said.

"Now they face the challenge of having to figure out what is the best way to salvage something," Ben Wood, chief of research at consultants CCS Insight, said.

In a show of unity, the GSMA's leadership held a joint news conference with local leaders on Thursday, vowing to work to stage next year's edition of the event, which has been held in Barcelona since 2006.

But Director General Mats Granryd faced tough questioning from reporters after conceding that insurance that the GSMA takes out on behalf of exhibitors does not cover an event like the coronavirus outbreak.

"Clearly there is no way you can insure yourself out of a force majeure situation," Granryd said.

Ramon Fernandez, CFO of French operator Orange, said cancellation was "going to cost us a bit of money, just like it's going to cost a bit of money to all those who had planned to go.

"We'll find a way to continue the dialogue," he added. "A number of those who had planned to go have written us to say: 'Let's meet up in Paris since we won't be able to see each other in Barcelona.' Agendas are filling up at lightning speed."

Communicating its decision also tested the GSMA's public relations machine. Even as cancellations snowballed and talk circulated on Wednesday that a decision to cancel was imminent, the GSMA was still sending out media invitations.

The final blow came when the European telecoms firms that form its core membership pulled out as a bloc, forcing the GSMA to bow to the inevitable.

Granryd told staff in an email he was "deeply saddened".

"The team working through this crisis have been fact-based, took appropriate measures and communicated both externally and internally in real time."

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Tech firms skipping Barcelona mobile fair over virus fears

MADRID - Major tech companies are skipping the Mobile World Congress this year because of fears over the coronavirus, though Chinese groups and other big names still plan to attend the top industry event.

Amazon and Sony said Monday they would stay away from the world's biggest mobile tech fair in Barcelona, joining Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and South Korean giant LG.

NTT DoCoMo, the biggest Japanese telecommunications operator and one of the biggest in Asia, said it too would be absent for reasons of "security" stemming from the virus.

The annual gathering is scheduled for Feb. 24 to 27 this year.

"Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about novel coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020," a Spanish-language statement said.

A Sony statement said: "As we place the utmost importance on the safety and well-being of our customers, partners, media and employees, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020 in Barcelona."

LG, which normally has one of the biggest stands, said last week that its decision "removes the risk of exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel which has already become more restrictive as the virus continues to spread across borders."

Like Sony, LG plans separate events to unveil its new mobile products.

Other trade shows have also been hit by the virus, with the biennial Singapore Airshow reporting the loss of more than 70 participants, including US group Lockheed Martin and Bombardier of Canada.

The MWC is a major date on tech company calendars and normally draws more than 100,000 people from all over the world to see the latest innovations and gadgets.

The mobile trade association GSMA that organizes the congress said Sunday it was taking drastic precautions this year to ease fears that it could become a hub for the virus to spread.

To date, more than 40,000 people have been infected and more than 900 have died in the outbreak that began in China's Wuhan city. Most deaths have been in China.

The Barcelona congress will be off limits to anyone from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus first broke out, and visitors from other parts of China will have to show they have been outside the country for two weeks before arriving in Spain.

Shenzhen-based ZTE, which makes smartphones and wireless networking equipment, and Huawei have said they still plan to attend, along with compatriots Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.

Finnish phone maker Nokia and the South Korean giant Samsung are also still expected.

"We remain more than 2,800 exhibitors strong," a GSMA statement said.

Daily disinfection

ZTE's exhibition stand and equipment will be disinfected daily and its booth exhibition staff will come from countries outside China, mainly from Europe, it said.

Senior executives taking part in "high-level meetings" at the gathering "will self-isolate themselves in Europe for at least two weeks prior to the MWC," a ZTE statement said.

The company plans to showcase new 5G devices this year.

Huawei staff, including executives, have also arrived two weeks early and shut themselves up in their hotels, a company spokesman told AFP.

GSMA said: "We are grateful for the preventative measures our Chinese exhibitors have put in place, notably ZTE and Huawei."

Meanwhile, personnel will be on hand to take visitors' temperatures and exhibitors will be advised on how best to disinfect their stands.

Spain has not declared a health emergency and only two cases of coronavirus have been detected in the country so far, one in the Canary Islands and another on the Mediterranean island of Majorca.

"Everything will be done to ensure the participant's peace of mind," Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni told Antena 3 television.

But an association of Barcelona hotel operators acknowledged they had recorded cancellations for the period, which represents one of the Catalan city's most important events.

Agence France-Presse

Amazon, Sony skipping mobile congress owing to virus

MADRID - Amazon and Sony said Monday they will steer clear of the world's biggest mobile tech fair in Barcelona at the end of this month owing to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The US and Japanese heavyweights joined a list of companies that includes Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson and South Korean giant LG that will forego attending the annual gathering that is to take place on February 24-27 this year.

"Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about novel coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020," a Spanish-language statement said.

A Sony statement said: "As we place the utmost importance on the safety and wellbeing of our customers, partners, media and employees, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020 in Barcelona."

The Japanese group has maintained an internet news conference on February 24 however to present its new products.

The MWC is a major date on tech company calendars and normally draws more than 109,000 people from all over the world to see the latest innovations and gadgets from 2,800 exhibitors.

The mobile trade association GSMA that organizes the congress said Sunday it was taking drastic precautions this year to ease concerns that it could become a hub for the virus to spread.

To date, more than 40,000 people have been infected and more than 900 have died.

The Barcelona congress will be off-limits to anyone from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus first broke out, and visitors from other parts of China will have to show they have been outside the country for two weeks before arriving in Spain.

Chinese tech groups ZTE and Huawei still plan to attend but their representatives are to be carefully vetted.

ZTE's exhibition stand and equipment will be disinfected daily and all of its booth exhibition staff will come from countries outside of China, mainly from Europe, it said.

Meanwhile, personnel will be on hand to take visitors' temperatures.

Spain has not declared a health emergency and only two cases of coronavirus have been detected in the country so far, one in the Canary Islands and one on the Mediterranean island of Majorca.

"Everything will be done to ensure the participant's peace of mind," Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni told Antena 3 television.

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Amazon pulls out of major Barcelona telecoms conference over coronavirus

BERLIN/MADRID - Amazon.com Inc has pulled out of this month's Mobile World Congress because of the coronavirus outbreak, in another blow to one of the telecom industry's biggest gatherings which attracts over 100,000 visitors to Barcelona.

"Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about the new coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

Amazon had planned a significant presence through its cloud computing arm AWS, which was due to host a full-day conference track on the first day of the event.

The online retailer is the fourth company to pull out of the annual gathering this week, following South Korea's LG Electronics, Swedish equipment maker Ericsson and US chipmaker Nvidia.

The Feb. 24-27 event will go ahead as planned, the GSMA telecoms industry association, which runs the Congress, confirmed in a statement on Sunday before Amazon said it was pulling out, adding that they would tighten health precautions to guard against the coronavirus outbreak.

No visitors will be allowed to attend from China's Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak started, while visitors from China must prove they have been outside the country for two weeks prior to the event, GSMA said.

Some 5,000-6,000 visitors typically come from China to the world's premier telecoms industry gathering, where companies spend millions on stands and hospitality to fill their order books for the year ahead.

Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE have said they will attend, ordering China-based staff to self-isolate ahead of the event to ensure they are free of the illness, and drafting in European staff to cover for those stranded.

China raised the death toll from the outbreak to 811 on Sunday, passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic, while total confirmed cases of the illness reached 37,198.

The virus has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, according to a Reuters count based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people outside China. Two deaths have been reported outside mainland China - both of Chinese nationals.

More then two dozen large trade fairs and industry conferences in China and overseas have been postponed or hit by travel curbs and concerns about the spread of the virus, potentially disrupting billions of dollars worth of deals.

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Minus influencers' sheen, Vivo spotlights tech for productivity

SHANGHAI -- Stripped of celebrity endorsers that helped propel smartphone sales, Chinese tech firms like Vivo focused on showcasing innovations that are both practical and futuristic.

The Asian stop of Mobile World Congress this year showcased how the upcoming connectivity standard, 5G, can transform how people use their devices.

From motorized selfie cameras that pop up from the top of the device to keep the screen truly bezel-free, Vivo's prototypes will soon make their way to mainstream offerings.

At triple the capacity of the fastest charger commercially available, the 120-watt SuperFlash charge promises to juice up a Vivo device to full capacity in 13 minutes, or roughly the time it takes for a Grab ride to arrive, the company said.

There was no NBA superstar Stephen Curry or the hot new teen couple in Vivo's booth at MWC, just its staff who explained the new tech to visiting Southeast Asian journalists.

Vivo claims up to 50 percent charge in just 5 minutes, addressing a consumer pain point on slow-charging batteries. The computations were based on a 4,000 mAh battery that is common for handsets in the market.

While rivals Huawei and Oppo showcased the zoom capabilities of their P30 and Reno series, respectively, Vivo showcased how its phones could be used as enterprise devices.

Similar to what Blackberry did in its heyday, Vivo said it partnered with Chinese firms to equip their workforce with Vivo phones.

Once they enter the office, a simple tap on an NFC device art the door switches the profile on their devices to work from personal, Vivo said.

Aside from gaming and scene recognition, Vivo's AR glasses can also be used for productivity such as managing emails, using the phone as a track pad.

Targeting industrial problems tied to file swapping and sharing in the age of wireless, Vivo said it combined 5G with the cloud for Easy Share and Screen Mirroring.

Easy Share allows devices to swap files regardless of size or distance as long as there is a 5G connection and Screen Mirroring, which lets a user see the display on another person's screen in real time.

Ahead of the MWC event on Wednesday, Vivo also unveiled in Manila on Monday its newest Apex concept phone, which has no ports and buttons.

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5G future on display with robots, AI at China tech fair

SHANGHAI -- The near future where robots take charge of mundane tasks like grocery shopping to helping doctors save lives was on display in this Chinese financial hub on Wednesday, all powered by the upcoming 5G standard that promises to transform the way people interact with technology.

This year's Mobile World Congress was a display of practical applications of 5G, which Chinese tech titans are selling to the world, despite opposition from the US.

The biggest exhibitors include Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of telecom infrastructure and number two smartphone maker that was blacklisted by Washington, compatriots Vivo and Oppo, chipmaker Qualcomm and carriers China Telecom and China Unicom.

Compared to 4G or LTE, 5G promises faster data transfers and at larger volumes at a time. In the home, it can help power smart devices such as virtual assistants housed in speakers and ultra high definition television and gaming.

It can be used by autonomous vehicles to carry both people and cargo, automating both transportation and logistics.

Big data can harness 5G speeds to aid doctors in diagnosis and treatment. Another application allows users to pay for their groceries without passing through the check out counter since the computing is done on the cloud.

One 5G-powered robot was controlled using a glove with sensors, reminiscent of the big robot cartoon "Daimos" that was popular in the 1980s.

Another robot, its body shaped like that of a woman, interacted with visitors as it danced.

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Smartphone makers look to gamers for sales boost

BARCELONA -- Smartphone makers hope video games will help them stand out in a crowded market with dwindling sales, but analysts warn that handsets don't have the power or the screen size to lure hardcore players.

Video games on smartphones have taken off in recent years and accounted for nearly half of the global video game market in 2018, according to a report from French telecoms research group Idate.

"Most analysts predict the mobile game industry is moving towards a focus on casual players. 'Hardcore' gamers that care about displays would probably much rather play on a dedicated portable console," said Fitch Solutions analyst Cristina Liberal.

The purchase by China's biggest gaming group Tencent of a majority stake in Finnish mobile game maker Supercell in 2016 highlights the growing focus on the mobile video game market, she added.

Smartphone video game competitions are now held, especially in China where Tencent launched its widely popular mobile strategy game "Honor of Kings" in 2015.

And popular games such as "Clash of Clans" and its successor "Clash Royale", which were developed by Supercell, are now a regular part of the esports scene where they can be played on mobile phones.

Esports is a form of competitive video gaming with multiple players battling against each other usually in teams, often in matches that are streamed live to throngs of fans.

'KEY ELEMENT'

"Video games are inevitably a key element in the conception of smartphones," said Thomas Husson, a consumer devices analyst at research firm Forrester as the Mobile World Congress trade fair was underway this week in Barcelona.

They require devices with "high level of performance" and low latency, or response times, to work well, he added.

Honor, a sub-brand in Chinese telecoms giant Huawei's smartphone portfolio, highlighted the advantages of its new View 20 model for video game players such as a large screen and cooling system when it was presented at the end of 2018 in Paris.

South Korea's Samsung, the world's biggest smartphone seller, in 2016 introduced a gameboard that could be paired with its Galaxy S8 flagship phone for gaming.

"Video games are very important for us," a Samsung spokesman said, adding the company prefers to make handsets that "respond to many different needs" instead of a model dedicated to a specific use such as gaming.

FEW DEDICATED DEVICES

While gaming is taken into account by handset makers when they design their devices, few have moved to make specialized models for video games.

This contrasts with computer makers who have put out many models aimed at video game players which are often more expensive and much more powerful.

Xiaomi, Asus and ZTE have phones geared towards gaming but often the difference with their other devices is negligible.

"The only differentiation factor is to modify settings, like display or battery usage. Mobile game developers prefer to focus on 'casual' gamers that don't require extra features, and generate more cash," said Liberal.

Most mobile games do not need high powered devices to work well so the incentive to come out with a device geared specifically to gaming is low.

Husson said video gaming helps underpin smartphone sales "but not to the point where it could compensate for the decline in sales" of handsets.

"If there was a real demand for smartphones specifically for gaming, we would have already seen them, therefore it is not really the case. What could possibly change things are flexible screens, which open up new possibilities," he added.

Samsung and Huawei have both unveiled in recent days new smartphone models featuring screens that can fold open like a tablet and others firms are expected to follow their example.

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LG unveils dual-screen 5G smartphone, touts biometric breakthrough

BARCELONA -- South Korea’s LG Electronics unveiled a 5G smartphone on Sunday with a dual screen, the latest handset maker to pitch a new design feature in an effort to revive flagging sales.

The two screens on the new V50ThinQ work independently, so a user can watch a film on one screen while browsing the Internet on the other.

LG, the world's No.7 smartphone maker, saw its sales decline by a quarter last year as Chinese rivals Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi grabbed market share in a slightly weaker global market.

Both announced 5G phones in Barcelona on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the telecoms industry's main annual get together, with Xiaomi pitching a $680 model and Huawei smashing the price ceiling with $2,600 folding phone.

LG nevertheless retains a following among those who value good video and audio quality.

Addressing those users, LG launched a second phone, the G8ThinQ, which can be unlocked without touching the screen. The handset instead uses light sensors to scan the veins in a user's hand or to recognize their face.

The phone's front-facing camera, which uses a sensor chip developed by Germany's Infineon Technologies, can scan in three dimensions - making it more secure than existing biometric methods of unlocking phones such as fingerprints.

LG product evangelist David Montanya told a launch event it would be harder to 'spoof' than the FaceID feature used in Apple's iPhone X because the vein structure in a user's hand has less than one chance in a billion of being the same as anyone else's.

Users can also activate features with gestures - for example to play or pause a song or video, or adjust the volume, by twisting their fingers, emulating the character played by Tom Cruise in science-fiction detective thriller Minority Report.

LG did not set release dates or announce prices for the new phones, but said the 5G model should hit stores in the first half of the year.

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Huawei's folding Mate X smartphone challenges Samsung Galaxy Fold

MANILA -- Huawei launched its folding Mate X smartphone on Sunday, in a response to Samsung's Galaxy Fold, as it teased the arrival of its photography-centered P30 series in March.

Shenzen-based Huawei, the world's second largest smartphone maker also highlighted its 5G technology at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Huawei and market leader Samsung are racing to innovate in the smartphone space as sales cool, with consumers holding on to their handsets longer and avoiding the yearly upgrade cycle.

The Mate X folds out to reveal an 8-inch near borderless screen with no notch and no punch holes for the camera. Huawei consumer business CEO Richard Yu said it would be the fastest 5G device upon release.

When folded, the Mate X functions as a 6.6-inch smartphone.

"You can use this in any way, either you open it or you fold it. It's very convenient," he said. The design, inspired by the falcon's wing, took 3 years to develop, he said.

The Mate X's entire screen is visible even when folded unlike the Samsung Galaxy, which unfolds to reveal a tablet-like screen while keeping a smaller smartphone-style panel one one half of the device.

Aside from the Galaxy Fold, Samsung also unveiled last week its 10th generation S line, the Galaxy S10 Plus, S10 and the lower priced S10 e.

Huawei, on its Philippines Facebook page, teased the P30 Pro with a shot of the moon with the watermark slightly blurred. Leaks point to as many as 4 cameras on the rear of the P30 Pro.

The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus and Xiaomi's Mi 9 have 3 rear cameras each on the rear.

Huawei also unveiled Sunday 5G WiFi devices for the home and on the go and its Matebook X Pro touchscreen notebook with a 91 percent screen-to-body ratio and a wider 3:2 aspect ratio.

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Huawei's AI-powered smartphone drives a Porsche

BARCELONA - China's Huawei used the artificial intelligence capabilities of its flagship Mate 10 Pro phone to drive a sports car as the Mobile World Congress got under way in Barcelona Monday, in what it said was a world first.

The Porsche avoided several obstacles, including a dog and a bike, as it drove in a straight line to demonstrate the AI-powered object recognition technology in the phone's camera.

The tech giant said it was "the first mobile device manufacturer in the world to use an AI-powered smartphone to drive a car," saying the technology was able to distinguish between thousands of different objects and thereby able to avoid any collision.

Huawei said the test was only designed to demonstrate its phone's AI capabilities and did not plan to develop a new driverless car.

"The smartphone totally controls the vehicle, we did not do anything except for steering elements," said Arne Herkelmann, who heads Huawei's handset portfolio in Europe.

"The camera sees that there is something on the road, recognizes what it is and acts to avoid it, we trained our AI to be able to recognize a road and its possible obstacles."

In 2017, Huawei was the world's third biggest seller of smartphones after Samsung and Apple, holding a 10.4 percent market share, up from 9.5 percent a year earlier, according to figures from research firm IDC.

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Five trends from world's largest mobile phone fair

The phone industry's largest annual trade fair, the Mobile World Congress which wrapped up in Barcelona on Thursday, was dominated by fast-charging phone batteries, virtual reality and connected objects, from toothbrushes to cars.

LONGER LASTING BATTERIES AND FAST CHARGING

 Several phonemakers unveiled new smartphones with batteries that can last longer and be charger faster.

Huawei, the world's third-largest phone maker after Apple and Samsung, said its new flagship device, the P10, features a 40 percent boost in battery life.

The battery also features "super charge" technology that promises a full day charge in just 20 minutes.

Blackberry's new devices, which bring back the brand's iconic physical keyboard, have the brand's biggest-ever batteries. They also feature a "boost mode" that allow you to get a a 50 percent charge in roughly 36 minutes.

DRONES AND ROBOTS

Drones and robots were everywhere at this year's trade show. At Korea Telecom's stand, two robotic arms played the drums, varying the songs throughout the day. Japanese firm Softbank drew crowds with its human-like robot Pepper which can be employed in shops to greet customers and demonstrate products, while Barcelona-based Pal Robotics displayed two humanoid robot models.

The fair set up a special "drone zone" for the first time to demonstrate their use in the delivery of goods to remote areas or aid to farmers by surveying crop growth.

VIRTUAL REALITY

 Virtual reality (VR) headsets were front and centre, in a sign of the importance placed on the technology by the sector.

Samsung unveiled several new innovations including a 360-degree virtual travel app designed to allow people to reminisce about past experiences.

Lithuanian mobile app developers TeleSoftas showcased an app which allows business meetings to be held in virtual reality with avatars representing people in different parts of the globe.

VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Following on the heels of the success of Amazon.com's Echo, a hands-free speaker with AI-powered virtual assistant Alexa, several firms showcased their own version of the technology.

Sony unveiled a new version of its Xperia Ear earphones which includes a virtual assistant called the Sony Agent.

Both LG and Motorola presented new flagship smartphones that integrated a virtual assistant while Samsung announced that its new high-end phone which will be presented in New York at the end of the month will also have one.

Research firm Garner predicts that by 2019, 20 percent of all our interactions with a smartphone will be carried out via such assistants.

CONNECTED DEVICES

Companies rolled out products based on a future centred on the "internet of things", a network of devices, vehicles and building sensors that collect and exchange data.

Several driverless cars were on display while a small French firm called Kolibree showcased a smart toothbrush that measures how well you brush your teeth and sends the statistics to your smartphone.

An Indian start-up, Lechal, displayed shoes with smart soles which vibrate to guide users to their destination. They work by connecting to the GPS tracker of a user's smartphone.

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Phonemakers pile in to exploit Samsung weakness

BARCELONA - Phonemakers are piling in to fill a gap in the market left by Samsung, still licking its wounds from a costly recall of its flagship Note 7 and with no key device of its own to launch at the telecom industry's biggest annual fair.

China's Huawei, the most likely contender to fill the hole in the premium end of the market, took the wraps off a new phone in its quest to displace Samsung as the world's no. 2 smartphone maker after Apple, during a rush of new product releases on Sunday ahead of this week's World Mobile Congress.

Chinese challengers Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Gionee are in hot pursuit, while BlackBerry and Nokia announced models exploiting their retro appeal.

Samsung itself presented two new tablets pending the launch of its next flagship device, the Galaxy S8, expected now at the end of March rather than at Mobile World Congress, its usual showcase.

"The past six months have undoubtedly been one of the most challenging periods of our history," Samsung's European marketing chief David Lowes told a news conference in Barcelona. "We're determined to learn every possible lesson."

Samsung withdrew the Galaxy Note 7 last October after faulty batteries led some devices to catch fire, leading to a loss of consumer trust, wiping out more than $5 billion of operating profit, and allowing the iPhone to overtake it in sales.

"The competition is feisty but I think we have a good chance," Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei's consumer business group, told Reuters in an interview.

Samsung's smartphone market share dropped to 17.7 percent in the fourth quarter, while Apple's rose to 17.8 percent, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Independent research analyst Richard Windsor of Radio Free Mobile doubts whether Samsung can quickly regain its position.

"Samsung has taken a massive $5.4 billion hit to profits, apologized profusely for the recall and admitted shortcomings in its quality and assurance process but I don't think that the full effects of this issue have fully hit home," he wrote in a blog post.

He pointed to a survey from Harris Poll which shows that Samsung's reputation has fallen from No. 7 in the United States to No. 42, just one position above the US Postal Service.

Huawei has aggressively expanded its mid- to high-end phones and is going head to head in Asia and Europe with Apple and Samsung in the premium phone market.

Its new high-end P10 phone will go on sale from March at 649 euros ($685) in Europe, its key target market, likely ahead of the expected Samsung S8 launch.

Huawei, which made its name as a builder of telecom networks and only entered the phone market this decade, has made no secret of its ambition to be the world's number two.

But fortunes can change rapidly in the smartphone market, with little-known names in the West pushing established Asian players such as ZTE, LG Electronics and Lenovo-Motorola into the second tier.

Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are now the fourth, fifth and sixth-biggest smartphone makers in the world, according to Strategy Analytics, with Sony number 16, and HTC in 20th place.

"The long game in smartphones simply is a marketing game," said Tim Coulling, an analyst at research firm Canalys.

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Samsung launches new tablets in flagship phone hiatus

Samsung Electronics launched two new tablets on Sunday, marking its first major announcement since being forced to withdraw the flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after some of the devices caught fire.

The Galaxy Tab S3 and the Galaxy Book were presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in past years the scene of major Samsung launches. This year, Samsung has postponed the presentation of the Galaxy S8, its next key device.

Instead, it took the wraps off the Galaxy Tab S3 and the Galaxy Book, which comes in a 10.6-inch and a 12-inch version.

The Galaxy Book will run on Microsoft Windows 10. The Tab S3 will have speakers by Harman-owned AKG, Samsung's first use of the brand since agreeing to buy Harman for $8 billion last year.

Samsung withdrew the Galaxy Note 7 last October after faulty batteries led some devices to catch fire, leading to a loss of consumer trust, wiping out $5.3 billion of operating profit, and allowing Apple's iPhone to overtake it in sales.

Samsung's smartphone market share dropped to 17.7 percent in the fourth quarter, while Apple's rose to 17.8 percent, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Samsung is expected to launch the S8 in April. In the meantime, dozens of device makers are launching new phones at Mobile World Congress, hoping to exploit the gap Samsung has left.

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Samsung skips Barcelona unveiling for Galaxy S8

SEOUL - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said on Monday it would not unveil its Galaxy S8 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show this year, suggesting the flagship model's launch may be later in the year than its 2016 version.

Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said the phone would not get a launch event at the MWC event in Barcelona, which begins on Feb. 27, unlike the previous Galaxy S smartphones.

Koh did not comment on when the company planned to launch the new handset, the first premium model Samsung is due to release since the failure of its Note 7 flagship device in October over safety issues.

The firm showed off the Galaxy S7 on the sidelines of MWC in February 2016, and started selling the phones in March.

Samsung reported a 50.2 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday despite the humiliating Galaxy Note 7 recall.

In a statement, Samsung said it posted operating profits of 9.22 trillion won (US$7.9 billion) during the October to December period.

Earnings were "driven by the components businesses, mainly the memory business and the display panel segment," it said, with the stronger US dollar also boosting profits.

Revenues were largely unchanged at 53.3 trillion won for the three months, the South Korean tech giant said.

For the full year, it said in a statement, "Samsung achieved solid results despite the Note 7 discontinuation in the second half" -- the only reference to the debacle that saw the company withdraw its flagship device.

Earlier this week it blamed faulty batteries from two different suppliers for the incidents.

Operating profits for 2016 reached 29.2 trillion won, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, the firm said, even though revenues were almost flat at 201.9 trillion won, up 0.6 percent.

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Can Europe regain lost mobile glory?

BARCELONA - Once a mobile telecom leader, Europe has lost out in recent years to giant companies in Asia and the United States. Now it wants to get back in the race.

The battle of the smartphones is now fought between South Korea's Samsung, US firm Apple with its iPhone, and Chinese upstarts such as Huawei.

Europe hosted the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona this week -- but it was dominated by several of these giants, minus Apple.

"Europe can feel like the focal point of the industry -– at least for a week. One week, then most of the major trendsetters will head back to the United States or to Asia," said Claudia Nemat, a member of Deutsche Telekom's board, ahead of the fair.

"We need European companies that can compete on the global market, especially in the digital economy. Otherwise, our only place in this global competition will be as a location for others to sell their services."

Europe's telecom industry went through a golden age in the 2000s with the launch of the 3G third-generation of network coverage.

Finland's Nokia was the leading manufacturer of handsets and a smartphone pioneer, but after being overtaken sold its mobile phone services in 2013 to the US Internet company Microsoft.

Mobile phone coverage has evolved into the faster 4G standard, but experts say Asia and the United States are far ahead of Europe in rolling out those networks.

Rise of China

Inside smartphones, the operating systems developed by Apple and Internet titan Google are the most widely used worldwide. Apple and Samsung are the world's biggest sellers of handsets.

Apple habitually boycotts the Barcelona fair and Samsung stole the show there this year with the launch of its top new smartphone, the Galaxy S6.

Another South Korean phone maker, LG, also made headlines with its connected phone-wristwatch, the Urbane LTE.

Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese firms such as Lenovo, Huawei and Xiaomi are booming. In the fourth quarter of 2014, they were third-, fourth- and fifth-biggest sellers of smartphones in the world, according to a ranking by consultancy Gartner.

"They are developing strongly," said Anne Bouverot, head of the GSMA association which groups 800 telecom operators.

Getting into wearables

Analysts say 2015 will be a boom year for "wearables" like smartwatches, and some see an opportunity there for Europe.

"Countries like Switzerland, for example, have particular expertise" in that area, said Jan Wassmann, a new technology specialist at German market research institute GfK.

"Our strength is being able to use the DNA of Swiss watchmaking and design watches that people will want to wear every day," Boris Brault, chief executive of MyKronoz, a Swiss startup, told AFP.

His company designs its watches in Switzerland, but like virtually all wireless devices nowadays, they are manufactured in China.

Other countries are hoping to add technical know-how to the boom in smart devices, such as France, which had 120 companies represented at the Mobile World Congress.

"One of our strengths is having very good engineering schools," said Eric Morand of Business France, an agency promoting French companies abroad.

Europe and 5G

Although it is considered to be lagging in 4G, Europe is already positioning itself as phone companies plan the next generation of 5G networks, which they hope to roll out by 2020.

The European Union has set up a public-private partnership with telecom firms to invest in developing 5G networks.

In Barcelona on Tuesday, the EU's digital economy commissioner Guenther Oettinger presented the bloc's 5G vision.

"With 5G Europe has a great opportunity to reinvent its telecom industrial landscape," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why 2015 will be the year of the wireless charger

BARCELONA - "Got a phone charger you can lend me? No, I need the new type... Oh, forget it."

To ease the stress of a dying mobile phone battery and the hassle of bundling wires into your bag, designers are hoping to make 2015 the year of the wireless charger.

Companies at the Mobile World Congress, a top telecom fair which wrapped up Thursday in Barcelona, Spain, promised that soon you will just place your phone on a table or lamp stand for it to absorb electricity through a wireless surface.

South Korean giant Samsung included wireless charging capability in its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6, unveiled on March 1 in Barcelona.

Swedish furniture-maker Ikea meanwhile announced a line of bedside tables, lamps and desks equipped with wireless charging spots to be launched in Europe and North America in the coming weeks.

"This is probably the year of the wireless charger," said Kevin Curran, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ahead of the mobile fair.

"A lot of the top-end phones now by default are coming with a wireless charger. You just have to put the phone onto a mat or onto a stand."

If a phone has a wireless charging receptor, just placing it over the charging pad on one of these items will transfer power to it.

The piece of furniture itself is not wireless, drawing its power from the mains, but no wire is needed to plug into the phone.

Standard adapters

Different rival technologies for wireless charging have emerged over recent years.

For their devices, Samsung and Ikea opted for the Qi standard -- a system developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, an alliance of some 200 different companies founded in 2008.

The Qi consortium claims its standard is the most widely used in the world with charging points in 3,000 hotels, restaurants, airports and public spaces. It says its system can be used in 80 models of mobile phone and various types of car.

The product announcements at the Barcelona show "will allow a big step forward," eventually freeing users of cumbersome charging wires, said Inge Tauber of the German company L&P Automotive, part of the Qi project.

"People have no need to fear that their chargers will become obsolete, because these bases will be compatible with the new generations of smartphone."

Even smartphones that were not made with a wireless charging receptor can be fitted with adaptors in the form of an outer case or other minor accessory costing from about 10 euros ($11).

Wireless charging race -

Qi is competing with two other standards, PMA and A4WP, which between them group some 200 other telecom, computing and electronics firms.

The PMA and A4WP camps will merge in mid-2015 "to accelerate the growth of this nascent market," they said in a statement.

Tauber denied this competition would hold back the industry from developing a common standard for compatible charging pads. She reckoned it would drive it towards a "homogenous standard".

Makers of smartphones have so far failed to find a common standard for any kind of charger, despite attempts such as the European Union's bid to impose universal chargers by 2016.

Analysts said it was tricky to estimate the potential value of the market for wireless chargers.

The Wireless Power Consortium estimates that 50 million chargers were sold in 2014.

According to technology consultancy Gartner, in that year consumers bought 1.8 billion handsets -- which typically come with a charger included.

"In the next few years they will all have wireless chargers in-built," Curran said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple's rivals hope its Watch will boost their own wearable tech

BARCELONA - Apple's rivals want to benefit from its magic, hoping that its long awaited new smartwatch will finally conjure demand for wearable technology that has so far generated more buzz about its potential than actual sales.

Gizmos that users wear on their bodies have yet to live up to the hype as the next big thing in technology. But experts say the arrival of Apple's new Watch - expected to be launched at an event announced next week - could finally get consumers excited.

"If Apple is successful, it'll create a rising tide that will lift the whole market," said Ben Wood, a top gadget reviewer at technology market research firm CCS Insight.

His company predicts Apple will sell 20 million of its new smart watches this year, helping spur 150 percent growth in the wearable technology sector to 75 million gadgets, rising to 350 million by 2018. Strategy Analytics, a second research firm, estimates Apple is likely to sell 15 million watches this year.

Making novelty products is one thing. Getting people to wear them is entirely another. Just ask Nike or Google.

Sportswear maker Nike halted work on its line of sports fitness wristband products a year ago. By far the most high profile failure to date has been the futurist Google Glass, which the Internet giant quit producing in January.

The gangly glasses with a computer screen fascinated the world and drew legions of celebrities, fashion models and even Prince Charles to try on a pair, but the sometimes vertigo-inducing product prototype found few regular wearers.

Vendors must get over the "technology first" attitude and think in terms of specific benefits to consumers before they will buy anything so visible and intimate as wearables, according to a recent report by research firm Juniper Research.

"Consumers are still unsure about the use case for many wearable devices, including watches and glasses. In particular, consumers are hesitant to adopt wearable companion devices" that function much like smartphones, the report said.

Now, here comes Apple, with its track record of turbo-charging whole new categories, from music players to tablets, with products that win wide appeal. The company was as ever absent from the world's largest annual gathering of the mobile industry this week, but it nonetheless stole the show by announcing a mysterious event next Monday, where it is widely expected to launch its much-anticipated but pricey new watch.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, dozens of electronics makers were seeking attention for their own watches, fitness trackers and other wearable electronics accessories.

STYLE

To take their products into the mainstream, many manufacturers of smartwatches are focusing on style, trying to make them look less like futuristic gadgets with oversized rectangular screens, and more like classic watches.

This year saw several companies follow the lead of Motorola, now owned by China's Lenovo, which won kudos last year by showing off a style-conscious device with a round screen. Both China's Huawei and South Korea's LG Electronics showed off round smartwatches this year.

"It looks like a real watch!" Huawei's head of consumer business Richard Yu boasted of his company's offering, which sports a choice of 40 round screen "faces", including replicas of classical Swiss watches.

While makers of conventional watches have so far mostly resisted the move to smartwatches, there are signs that brands better known for style than technology are testing the market. American brand Guess launched what it described as the first fashion-branded smartwatch.

Nike may have postponed its entry, but its U.S. sportswear rival Under Armour stepped in, launching a co-branded fitness device with Taiwanese phone maker HTC.

Still, for now wearable smart devices mostly work by linking to a smartphone, and consumers do not seem to be lining up to buy a watch that acts mainly as an expensive remote control for a phone they have to carry in their pockets anyway.

Some experts say the technology will only really take off when the wearables can be used independently.

Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said "smartwatches will complement, not replace smartphones" for at least the next two to three years.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Build-your-own Google handset reconstructs smartphone

BARCELONA - With a smartphone that slots together piece by piece like Lego, US Internet giant Google is trying to reinvent the mobile as most phone makers are honing sleeker handsets.

The company aims to challenge its rival Apple's thin iPhones with the Google Ara project, giving smartphone aficionados the option to build their phone themselves.

Anlysts say tech boffins will love it but remain cautious about how popular it may be compared to polished conventional smartphones that sit snugly in the palm.

Google says the Ara phone is part of its bid to widen Internet access to users in developing countries and could create a new industry for assembly-ready handset parts.

Google's associate, US firm Yezz, presented a prototype of the build-your-own device this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world's biggest wireless telecom trade fair.

The phone consists of a base structure on which various square, magnetic modular parts can be attached: screen, battery, camera, speakers and more. Google plans to release it in three sizes.

Ara would allow users to replace individual components rather than throwing the whole thing away and buying a new handset. It says the base unit will last at least five or six years.

"That is good for the environment," said Annette Zimmermann, a telecom specialist at German consultancy Gartner.

Emerging markets

Ara "could reshape the mobile landscape," said Paul Eremenko, director of the Ara Project, in a presentation to experts in January.

He said it aimed to gain six billion potential clients -- the current billion people who currently use smartphones "and five billion future users", most of them in emerging markets.

Google says a mid-range Ara phone could cost between $50 and $100 to produce, but has not given details of the likely sales price, leaving questions marks over how sustainable such a product would be.

"Google is not looking to make money directly with Ara," said Jerome Colin, a telecom expert at French consultancy group Roland Berger.

"It is basically looking to spread smartphones in countries with low purchasing power, and to unify the telecom world around its Android system."

'Paradox of choice'

Tech fans and bloggers queued up to see the prototype presented in Barcelona, but analysts were skeptical.

"The trend in mobile phones is to have small, thin, really integrated products. If you make a product modular it immediately means that you're going to have to make compromises on that," said Ben Wood, head researcher at consultancy CCS Insight.

"The other question mark I have is: beyond geeks, who really knows" about components? he added.

"If I said to you, which processor do you want in your smartphone, I think you could stop people in the street and they'd just look at you like you'd landed from Mars."

Eremenko acknowledged that consumers risked being overwhelmed by too many technical options when it comes to choosing components.

"We need to resolve the paradox of choice," he said in January.

Google plans a test launch of the device in Puerto Rico by the end of this year.

"We will have to see if the public takes to it," said Zimmerman.

Google dominates the world of Internet searches and its Android operating system can be used on 80 percent of the world's smartphones. It also holds a large market share in wireless tablet devices.

Its senior vice-president Sundar Pichai said in Barcelona on Monday that it was in talks with telecom companies about possibly using their networks to operate its own mobile phone services in the United States.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How the smartphone war is shaping up

BARCELONA - The mobile phone industry is now looking to the fast-growing demand for smartphones priced at $100 or below as the market for fancier high-end devices has become saturated, but not all handset makers are able or willing to trade down.

Much of the talk this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the industry's biggest annual trade fair, has turned from the latest big screen, premium-priced devices to the new, entry-level smartphones that analysts say now overwhelmingly represent the industry's best hope for growth.

"All the phones now look the same," said industry analyst Ben Wood of CCS Insight after surveying the eight vast halls of phones and other mobile gadgets on show.

"The ability of top brands like Samsung, Apple and Nokia to differentiate themselves is getting harder," he said.

Growth in global smartphone shipments will fall sharply this year and keep slowing through 2018, with average prices dropping significantly as the demand shifts to China and other developing countries, market research firm IDC said earlier on Wednesday.

So now phone makers are touting new, low-cost devices which are intended to retail at near $100 or below. This class of device has some but not all the features of the current top end smartphones, which sell for several hundreds of dollars and until this year drew nearly all the media attention and marketing spend at Barcelona.

Early leaders in this new market are Chinese players, some with global brand names and others who remain virtually unknown outside China, who have made huge strides in acquiring the technical and design expertise that enables them to now drive down the costs without necessarily sacrificing quality.

The biggest winners so far look to be Huawei , Lenovo, TCL Communications and still unfamiliar upstarts like Gionee, Oppo and CorePad that are poised to become big international names in the coming years, said Wood.

All benefit from having a home field advantage in China, the world's largest phone market.

NOKIA X

This shifting landscape has already forced Nokia, the former mobile world-beater now struggling to stay relevant, to adopt Google's Android software to gain entry to the low-end smartphone market, despite Android being an arch rival of Nokia's new-owner-to-be Microsoft,

Launching the 89-euro ($120) Nokia X, Stephen Elop, chief executive of the Finnish group, called the sub-$100 range, "a massive opportunity" with that segment of the smartphone market now growing four times faster than the rest of the market.

Wood said Nokia's move spoke volumes about the pressures the whole industry was feeling.

"The cheaper end of the smartphone market has become such a big opportunity that, eventually, Nokia had to go to a rival software system -- Google's Android," he said, describing the move as "hugely controversial, but necessary".

The cheap stripped-down smartphones, which often sacrifice big screens, memory, and camera quality and have fewer novelty features such as fingerprint recognition, are designed to reach potentially billions of new consumers in emerging markets.

Smartphone sales last year overtook for the first time sales of so-called basic 'feature' phones, which focus on just calls and texts with a pared down Internet access, according to market tracking firm Strategy Analytics.

And IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said smartphone sales in the sub-$100 category alone more than tripled to hit 159 million last year from 45.4 million in 2012. Sub-$50 smartphones grew even faster, up from just 900,000 in 2012 to 19.5 million last year.

COMPONENT SUPPLIES

However, this growth in demand is pushing up the cost of components, a surprising twist in an industry more familiar with falling material prices as technology evolves.

China's ZTE Corp, whose mobile business is aiming for 50 percent growth in shipments to 60 million phones this year, has seen the component supply crunch.

"All vendors face the challenge of the cost of key hardware components such as screen displays, memory and keyboards," said Qian Hao Lv, head of ZTE's device strategy. "These are crucial to differentiate one model from the next."

Nonetheless, Kan Yulun, another ZTE executive, said that the company was working on new technologies to drive the cost of smartphones down to $50 or below without compromising on quality.

"We will find tech solutions to reach the $50 price target by the end of this year," Yulun said.

He said he often hears from telecom operators in Africa, who still sell lots of feature phones, that they were now hungry for smartphones but need prices to come down to below $50.

The head of the pack in the sub-$100 race is the Alcatel Onetouch brand owned by TCL. Its brightly-coloured Idol family of phones have already proven a hit in Latin America and Europe and the firm launched two new phones for under $100 at the Mobile World Congress this week that can run on 4G mobile networks being rolled out in China, Brazil, and elsewhere.

But while many players are now chasing the lower end of the market not all are, fearing that stripped-down hardware features can only lead to a commoditised market where no one can differentiate and maintain a worthwhile profit margin.

Huawei, the world's third-biggest phone maker, prefers to aim higher by increasing the proportion of its phones that sell for 300 euros ($400) or more as opposed to the low-end it defines as under 150 euros.

"We are not interested in the sale volume of those low-end, low-priced phones," said Chief Executive Eric Xu.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Firefox aims to power USD 25 smartphone

BARCELONA - Firefox OS, an upstart smartphone operating system aimed a challenging the Apple and Google duopoly, will power a new category of USD 25 smartphones for developing countries, the California-based nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Sunday.

Mozilla sought to show off the success of its system, launched a year ago to prise open a market in which Google's Android was at the heart of 78.4 percent of all smartphones sold last year and Apple's iOS in another 15.6 percent, according to figures from technology research house Gartner Inc.

On the eve of the opening on Monday of the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Mozilla announced the commercial launch of seven new devices using Firefox OS including Chinese handset maker ZTE's smartphones Open C and Open II, as well as a range of Alcatel OneTouch tablets.

"We are also enabling a whole new category of smartphone, priced around $25 (18 euros), that will bring even more people around the world online," said Mozilla chief operating officer Jay Sullivan.

The entry-level smartphone would rely on integrated circuits made by Chinese electronics manufacturer Spreadtrum, he said.

"Firefox OS is off to an amazing start. We launched our first smartphones in July, and have since expanded into 15 markets," Sullivan said.

People in Latin America and Eastern Europe had upgraded from simple "feature phones" to Firefox OS smartphones with downloadable applications and Internet access, he added.

"Sales have far exceeded our targets. But 2013 was just the beginning. In 2014, we are differentiating our user experience and our partners are growing the portfolio of devices."

In 2014, Spanish giant Telefonica will sell Firefox OS-based devices in another seven countries, mostly in South America, Sullivan said.

Mozilla did not say how many Firefox-powered smartphones have been sold since the system's launch last July.

The foundation did say, however, that it expected Firefox OS to spread to other devices including smart televisions.

The group signed in January a partnership with Panasonic for the system to be used in an Internet-connected television.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com