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

Apple expected to polish lineup with new iPhone

Apple on Wednesday is expected to introduce a new iPhone and perhaps a second-generation smartwatch as it polishes its lineup of devices to shine during the year-end shopping season.

The rumor mill has been grinding away with talk of iPhone 7 models that will boast faster chips, more sophisticated cameras, and improved software while doing away with jacks for plugging in wired headphones.

To assuage users accustomed to wired headphones, Apple could roll out accessories that include an adaptor that plugs into a remaining port.

The event would also be a chance to showcase wireless headphones, perhaps some from Beats, which Apple bought two years ago in a deal valued at $3 billion.

"Though not a completely redesigned smartphone, I do expect Apple to announce enough innovation to the new iPhone 7 devices to maintain its leadership," said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

"In particular, the timing would be ideal for Apple to leverage its Beats acquisition and deliver new headphones -- bundling voice-based services from Siri with an Apple Music subscription offering."

In Apple's usual enigmatic style, it provided little more that the date, time and place to the invitation-only gathering.

Apple has maintained a rhythm of introducing updated iPhone models on an annual basis, timing introductions to coincide with the year-end holiday shopping season.

In July, the company announced the sale of its billionth iPhone, a milestone for the company as it seeks to keep momentum in a competitive smartphone market.

"We see a large opportunity for the iPhone 7 when we consider the potential number of upgraders coming from the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus," said Kantar Worldwide ComTech consumer insight director Lauren Guenveur.

"Virtually all of those who intend to upgrade have told us they will remain loyal to Apple, making the iPhone 7 an obvious choice."

Apple reported a drop in iPhone sales in the second quarter of this year, a second straight drop after uninterrupted growth since its introduction in 2007.

- Apple Watch time? -

California-based Apple could also use the event to showcase updates to other products, such as its smartwatch and laptop computers.

Speculation regarding an Apple Watch 2 was fueled in part by the fact that the original hardware has not been updated since it debuted in April of last year.

A new-generation smartwatch could play well into Apple's "ecosystem" of smartphones, apps, services and more but likely "won't be the disruptive new product that Apple needs," said analyst Husson.

Improved iPhone and smartwatch models would be arriving just as Apple is set to roll out a new version of the mobile operating system.

The event will come as Apple squares off with the European Union over a demand that the iPhone maker pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes in Ireland.

Apple has vowed to fight the tax bill.

source: www.abs=cbnnews.com

Twitter, French bank team up for money transfers via tweets

PARIS/FRANKFURT - One of France's largest banks is teaming up with social network Twitter Inc. this week to allow its customers to transfer money via tweets.

The move by Groupe BPCE, France's second largest bank by customers, coincides with Twitter's own push into the world of online payments as the social network seeks new sources of revenue beyond advertising.

Twitter is racing other tech giants Apple and Facebook to get a foothold in new payment services for mobile phones or apps. They are collaborating and, in some cases, competing with banks and credit card issuers that have run the business for decades.

The bank said last month it was prepared to offer simple person-to-person money transfers via Twitter to French consumers, regardless of what bank they use, and without requiring the sender know the recipient's banking details.

"(S-Money) offers Twitter users in France a new way to send each other money, irrespective of their bank and without having to enter the beneficiary's bank details, with a simple tweet," Nicolas Chatillon, chief executive of S-Money, BPCE's mobile payments unit, said in the statement.

Payment by tweets will be managed via the bank's S-Money service, which allows money transfers via text message and relies on the credit-card industry's data security standards.

BPCE and Twitter declined to provide further details ahead of a news conference in Paris on Tuesday to unveil the service.

Last month, Twitter started trials of its own new service, dubbed "Twitter Buy", to allow consumers to find and buy products on its social network.

The service embeds a "Twitter Buy" button inside tweets posted by more than two dozen stores, music artists and non-profits. Burberry, Home Depot, and musicians such as Pharrell and Megadeth are among the early vendors.

Twitter's role to date has been to connect customers rather than processing payments or checking their identities.

"From the Twitter point of view, there is a limit to their appetite for getting involved in payments processing itself," said Andrew Copeman, a payments analyst with financial services research firm AITE Group, who is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"At the moment, banks are probably viewing Twitter and other social media networks as marketing channels to reach a wider set of their customers and to extend the bank's existing mobile banking initiatives," he said.

Twitter's success in developing additional services on its platform as Facebook has done will be key to its future profitability. Rakuten Bank in Japan offers a similar "Transfer by Facebook" service that lets users of its mobile banking app send money to anyone in their Facebook friends list.

Investors have been worried about Twitter's slowing user growth, sending the shares down about 17 percent this year, while rival Facebook's have climbed 35 percent.

Thomas Husson, a marketing strategy analyst with Forrester Research, said Twitter was likely to multiply efforts to explore new ways to generate revenue with banks and credit card firms.

"Twitter wants to more explicitly demonstrate the overall value of its network as an advertising platform," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com