New Google Pixel smartphone debut expected October 4

Google on Thursday fired off invitations to an October 4 event at which the US tech giant is expected to field a second-generation Pixel as its new champion in the competitive smartphone market.

The internet giant behind Android software for powering mobile devices also launched a madebygoogle.com web page that featured a playful animation that asked "Thinking about changing phones?" and then suggested waiting until October 4.

Invitations to the event in San Francisco also advised the curious to follow its @madebygoogle account at Twitter. The phrase was rolled out with the original Pixel to refer to the fact it was the first time Google created both the software and hardware of a smartphone.

The Google event will come shortly after Apple begins shipping new iPhone 8 models unveiled this week at an event at the company's new "spaceship" campus in Silicon Valley.

Apple also announced a 10th anniversary iPhone X, touting the new flagship device as the next generation of mobile computing.

The Apple handset starting $999 will be available starting November 3 in more than 50 markets.

Samsung last month unveiled a new model of its Galaxy Note with a similarly high price tag as it seeks to mount a renewed challenge to iPhones.

Pricing on a Pixel 2 remained to be seen, but the original handset competes in the premium segment of the market.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Samsung Note 7 stumble opens opportunity for Apple, Huawei

PARIS - Smartphone customers losing faith in Samsung have plenty of choice at a time when Apple, Google and China's Huawei are each pushing new models that up the features ante and do not self-combust.

"All of Samsung's competitors are rubbing their hands in glee," said Thomas Husson, an analyst with the Forrester technology research and consultancy firm.

"It's basically a good product, released at the right time, but a slip-up, and we've seen in the past with Nokia or Blackberry that these can have disastrous effects," he added.

While it is too early to predict a similar disappearance from the phone market of the South Korean company, rivals are nipping at the heels of the market leader.

These include not only Apple and Chinese companies like Huawei, but also internet titan Google, which entered the smartphone market last week with its own device -- the Pixel.

"There will inevitably be some moderate-to-marginal benefit for Samsung’s handset rivals, more particularly Apple, perhaps faster-growing Huawei can benefit more from Samsung’s Note 7 travails," said analyst Ken Odeluga at the online trading firm City Index.

APPLE AND HUAWEI

However Ian Fogg, senior director and head of the mobile and telecoms team at the IHS technology consultancy, said that "Huawei will be the biggest beneficiary from brand damage to Samsung."

One of the largest providers of network infrastructure globally, Huawei has been pushing into the smartphone market, including the top-end segment with its P9 model that features a camera with two Leica lenses.

"Huawei will look to pick up sales right across its portfolio," said Fogg, noting that Huawei was already the third-largest smartphone maker.

"Like Samsung, it uses Android and offers smartphones at a wide range of prices."

The blow to Samsung is unlikely to be fatal, however.

"Competitors might enjoy a short-term boost to sales as a result of a major player having to withdraw its new model, though overall it is likely to remain a competitive market," said Laith Khalaf, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown brokerage.

Part of the reason is that its competitors have their own challenges to surmount.

Huawei, for instance, still needs to build its brand in Europe and North America.

Meanwhile Apple needs to recapture the excitement around its products that has disappeared in recent years.

TIP OF THE ICEBERG?

Thomas Husson at Forrester believes "it is too early to say what the long-term impact will be" from this incident, although the recall is likely to set it back a considerable amount.

Linda Sui, wireless smartphone strategies director at Strategy Analytics, estimated that Samsung could lose "$10 billion or more" over the recall.

"The loss of sales from the Galaxy Note is only the tip of the iceberg," warned CMCMarkets analyst Jasper Lawler.

"Demand for the flagship Galaxy S8, scheduled for release early next year, could be severely impeded by the loss of consumer confidence in the Samsung brand."

But City Index's Ken Odeluga said that "nobody wants to believe Samsung has ‘lost its touch’ at producing beautiful and advanced consumer technology."

"So there is some underlying sentiment that views its problems as the kind of bad luck which could afflict almost any smartphone maker that is pushing boundaries."

But ManMohan Sodhi, a professor of operations and supply chain management at Cass Business School in London believes that it wasn't bad luck as much as bad judgement.

"They should have figured out the product but with Google coming out with the Pixel, they did not give it enough time," said Sodhi.

While Google has developed the Android operating system that powers the smartphones made by Samsung and other manufacturers, except for Apple, it has generally stayed on the sidelines when it comes to handsets.

The release of the Pixel, along with its Google Home virtual assistant, indicates that Google aims to get its artificial intelligence technology into the hands and homes of consumers.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Google takes on Apple, Amazon with new hardware push

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google on Tuesday announced a new "Pixel" smartphone and a suite of new consumer electronics products for the home, planting itself firmly in the hardware business and challenging Apple Inc's iPhone at the high end of the $400 billion global smartphone market.

The string of announcements - including the $649 Pixel, a smart speaker for the living room dubbed "Home," a virtual reality headset, and a new Wi-Fi router - is the clearest sign yet that Google intends to compete head-to-head with Apple, Amazon.com Inc. and even manufacturers of phones using its own Android mobile operating system.

Company executives, echoing Apple's longstanding philosophy, said they were striving for tighter integration of hardware and software.

"The thinking is that if we can work on hardware and software together, we can innovate much better," Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh said in an interview with Reuters, citing a recent reorganization that united once-disparate hardware teams.

Under the new structure, the company has begun to take a much more integrated approach to things like supply chain management and design, added Mario Queiroz, a vice president of product management.

"The learnings from one product are benefiting another product," he said.

Unlike earlier Google phone efforts under the Nexus brand, the Pixel devices are designed and developed by Google from the start, although Taiwan's HTC Corp will serve as the contract manufacturer.

SWIPE AT APPLE

Taking another page from the Apple playbook, Google said it would work exclusively with a single carrier in the United States, Verizon Communications Inc, on the Pixel, emulating Apple's agreement to launch the original iPhone with AT&T Inc. That deal gave Apple unprecedented control over the look of the phone and how it worked.

Shares of Alphabet closed up 0.3 percent, while Verizon fell 1.2 percent.

The phone comes in two sizes, and its high-end camera is one of few distinguishing features, analysts said. The phones come in black, blue and silver and will be able to get up to a seven-hour charge in 15 minutes. Pre-orders begin on Tuesday.

"Aside from the camera, the new Google Pixels are pretty undifferentiated compared to Samsung and iPhone seventh generation phones," industry analyst Patrick Moorhead said.

While the new phones are clearly aimed at competing with the iPhone - Google executives took several swipes at Apple in their on-stage remarks - analysts said Android rivals like Samsung Electronics could be the biggest victim if the Pixel takes off.

Google's strategy of licensing Android for free and profiting from embedded services such as search and maps made Android the dominant mobile operating system with some 89 percent of the global market, according to IDC.

But Apple still rules the high end of the market, and Google has long been frustrated by the emergence of many variations of Android and the inconsistent experience that has produced. Pushing its own hardware will likely complicate its relationship with Android licensees, analysts said.

ALL-PURPOSE ASSISTANT

Google kicked off the event Tuesday by touting the Google Assistant, the company's voice-activated artificial intelligence system and its answer to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. The presenter showed how a customers could make a restaurant reservation with a few phrases spoken into the phone.

The assistant will be embedded into the Pixel and Home products and is being positioned as the central feature in a family of integrated hardware and software products.

It is one of a handful of similar assistants that are vying for supremacy as more people search the web and make purchases online using voice commands, which may eventually supplant keyboards and touchscreens as the primary means of controlling digital devices.

While Google is often cited as the leader in artificial intelligence, Amazon stole a march on the company with its Alexa-powered Echo home speaker system, a surprise hit. The Home device and the Echo have many of the same features.

Google's "Daydream View" virtual reality headset, meanwhile, puts the company in competition with Facebook Inc, owner of Oculus. The device, which works with an Android phone, is far cheaper and simpler. It will be available in November for $79, in time for the end-of-year shopping season.

Home will also be available in November for $129, including a six-month trial of ad-free YouTube.

Google also unveiled a new version of its Chromecast digital media player and a router dubbed Google Wifi, both boasting the same sleek, minimalist design as the Home product.

"These look like products from a single company," said Queiroz, the Google executive.

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