3 Chinese smartphone brands among global Top 5

[TaiShang]

Next month Xiaomi will be unveiling its next flagship device

Black Edition Xiaomi Mi5 Leaked?
December 29, 2014


People are reporting that Xiaomi will launch the Xiaomi Mi5 at CES 2015, and we had seen a Possible Xiaomi Mi5 white edition leak picture before, and today we found the possible Black Edition Xiaomi Mi5. The picture was spotted on Weibo shows a phone similar in appearance to the current Xiaomi Mi4, and it even has the Xiaomi logo and MIUI.



Xiaomi’s Mi4 lead is a 5-inch telephone, But the gadget in this picture is a much bigger cell phone perhaps measuring between 5.5-inch and as much larger between 5.7-inch. We can see that the general look of Mi4 is held by this secret phone. We can see from the picture that this phone has a very thin bezel, almost as thin as the earlier leaked black edition. But since it’s black, we can’t see the receiver, light sensor, camera and Xiaomi’s logo very clearly.

Rumors belive that this phone will run a 2k dispaly and pack a Snapdragon 805 with no less than 3gb RAM and offer 4G LTE. So is this the genuine Xiaomi Mi5 that is supposed to be shown at CES, or is this an artificially made picture from xiaomi mi4? What do you think about it after knowing some of its features?

***

The Chinese government has recently issued a decree to replace all government/public use E-facility with national products. This INCLUDES the software in these facilities. Just wait and see. It will happen.

Very good. The earlier, the better.

***

The Budget Hi-Fi Lenovo K5 Smartphone Leaks
December 29, 2014


In the last month of 2014, one of the leaders of PC and smartphone world, launched the first “Internet” phone – Lenovo K3, which was priced at an amazingly low 599 Yuan. That device had some music-centric aspects, but did not go too deep into hardware sound accelerations like Vivo or Meizu with their devices.

This time around it seems to be a bit different story as the company is ready to introduce a budget Hi-Fi device for music lovers.

According to the short clip, which was shot in Lenovo sound labs, Lenovo is putting a lot of effort to manufacture the Hi-Fi smartphone for a budget-friendly price. The company works hard to offer a consumer the best audio experience by integrating the hardware and software into their new Lenovo K5 device.

It seems to be a pretty great offering by the company as they are trying to catch up with the recent trend of Hi-Fi goodies packed in the smartphones, which was first started by the Hi-End smartphone manufacturer Vivo.

However, we are not aware of any other specs of this upcoming device. Still, we believe it would pack quite reasonable hardware for the price point. In the end, we think that the K5 device by the Lenovo will be a great addition to their already huge smartphone portfolio.

 

[cirr]

Xiaomi's first laptop rumored

By: Edwin Kee | ubergizmo | Posted: 30 Dec 2014, 10:14

The Internet is an extremely interesting place, so much so that there is always more than enough room to have both rumors and facts lie around. Having said that, one of the latest rumors to make its rounds would be that of Chinese device manufacturer Xiaomi making a reach beyond that of smartphones – basically, we are looking at a possible laptop from the folks over at Xiaomi themselves. A laptop is a very different creature from that of a smartphone, this is for sure, so assuming that this particular rumor would turn out to be true, it would be interesting to see the execution part of it.

The image that you see above surely looks as though it is a good candidate for a Photoshop job, especially when you see how the Xiaomi logo looks as though it has been tacked on just like that. Word on the street has it that this alleged Xiaomi laptop will arrive with a 15” display at 1920 x 1080 pixels, running on an Intel Core i7 Haswell processor, accompanied by 16GB RAM, and carries a sticker price that will not be more than $500 after conversion. Sounds as though it is shaping up to be a bargain, don’t you think so?

 

[terranMarine]

i'd stick with a lenovo laptop, thinkpad line baby

 

[Militant Atheist]

I tell everyone I know (who wants to buy laptop) to buy Lenovo, its cheap, the spec is decent, and its improving, although I have to say that I had some bad experiences with Lenovo.

 

[cirr]

China's Huawei 2014 smartphone shipments grow by 40 pct -memo

Wed Dec 31, 2014 5:51am EST

By Gerry Shih

BEIJING Dec 31 (Reuters) - Huawei Technology Co Ltd's smartphone shipments rose by more than 40 percent in 2014, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, failing to match its own target and the performance of faster growing rivals such as Xiaomi Inc.

Although Huawei's shipments reached 75 million, the figure came in below its previously stated sales target of 80 million units. The growth rate also fell from 67 percent in 2013, in stark contrast to Xiaomi, which overtook Samsung Electronics Inc as the top vendor in China, the world's biggest smartphone market, last quarter. Xiaomi is on track to triple its global 60 million shipments this year.

Nevertheless, Huawei's smartphone revenues rose roughly 30 percent to more than $11.8 billion, according to the year-end memo to employees sent by Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer business.

Huawei spokeswoman Maggie Qi said on Wednesday the company does not comment on internal memos.

The results, which are due to be publicly announced in the coming weeks, reaffirms Huawei's continued ascent in the global smartphone war but also the sharpening competition between a small group of contenders, including Xiaomi and LG Electronics , whose growth rates are eclipsing those of the industry's leaders.

Pressured by low-cost vendors, top ranked Samsung Electronics Co is likely to see its shipments nearly unchanged this year, while second-ranked Apple Inc may have posted around 20 percent growth after launching the iPhone 6, analysts estimate.

Those growth rates, however, pale in comparison to the expansion of Xiaomi, which sold 26 million handsets during the first half of 2014.

If it reaches its sales target of 60 million for the year, Xiaomi will have more than tripled its 2013 sales of 18.7 million. Private investors believe it will continue to soar: the Beijing-based company announced this week a new round of equity financing at $45 billion valuation, making Xiaomi the most highly valued private technology company in the world.

Meanwhile, close rival LG Electronics Inc may have seen its smartphone shipments rise around 26 percent this year, according to analysts.

Trendforce analyst Alan Chen said in a research note this month that Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo Group Ltd, which recently purchased Motorola from Google in a $2.91 billion deal, will battle to be the top Chinese smartphone vendor in 2015.

"How Lenovo's Motorola acquisition plays out and whether Xiaomi can replicate its home market success overseas will be key factors in determining who becomes the top Chinese brand in 2015," Chen said. (Reporting by Gerry Shih and Miyoung Kim; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Louise Heavens)

 

[TaiShang]

2015 will prove to be revolutionary for China's tech companies.

 

[jha]

I have been using Lenovo TP for 6 years now. Recently bought a Lenovo Yoga2 Tab. Must say the Tab is awesome for its price. Good Job...

 

[TaiShang]

Xiaomi Registers 135 % More Revenue in 2014, Reveals CEO Lei Jun
January 4, 2015


Now that the figures are out, Chinese mobile maker Xiaomi Technology Ltd Co. said its pre-sales revenue stands $11.97 billion, an increase of 135% compared to its revenues in 2013, confirmed its CEO Lei Jun.

Just three months ago Xiaomi was declared the third largest mobile maker in the world after Apple and Samsung, surpassing the Huawei, another Chinese firm that held the position for quite some time.



In 2014, Xiaomi sold 61 million phones, registering 227 percent increase over its 2013 sales figures, said Lei on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog account. Lei Jun alone owns 77.8% ownership of the company that was set up in 2010.

Xiaomi’s profits soared to 347.5 million yuan ($56.7 million) in net profit in 2013, according to a regulatory filing in November 2013, though the company resorted to a very thin margin of 1.8% with its Redmi budget phones.

The filing was necessitated when Xiaomi bought 1.23 stake in Midea Group worth $200 million. Xiaomi has unleashed a price war all over Asia, where it is selling its budget phones with similar features and technological features similar to its rivals Samsung and Apple phones.

Still, Xiaomi has not entered the huge US market and once its presence is there, the real picture will emerge about the company’s global standing.

As Lei said in his blog that the China’s smartphone market would decline in 2015, Xiaomi is sure to make its entry into the US market this year and also focus on new innovative products.

In December 2014, Xiaomi raised $1.1 billion funding with a valuation of the firm at $45 billion from All-Stars Investment, DST Global, Hopu Investment Management and Yunfeng Capital, besides Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

 

[TaiShang]

Xiaomi Redmi 2 Officially Launched in China
January 3, 2015



2014 turned out to be a great year for Chinese manufacturer with many staying a focus of international smartphone industry gossips. Xiaomi, a Chinese manufacturer, is no name now. Xiaomi is said to be the third place in international global smartphone manufacturer industry now.

This Leak of the successor of Xiaomi Redmi 1S, hints us Xiaomi is all prepared to answer the Vegas CES 2015 in their own style. Apparently several shots of Xiaomi Redmi 2S has surfaced yesterday. From the looks we can tell it’s an Improved hardware carrying the same 720p 4.7 IPS Screen but it’s OGS this time. The biggest difference seems to be the addition of LTE antenna that t supports GSM, WCDMA, TD LTE, and LTE FDD networks.

This Redmi 2 will allegedly use the latest 64-Bit Snapdragon 410 chip,1GB RAM,8 GB ROM and 2200mAh battery. Rear shooter is the same 8MP shooter with the front facing bumped up to 2 MP, which was 1.2 MP in Redmi 1S. It will be have 5 colors: white, black green, yellow and pink.

Unfortunately, Redmi 2 will run the old 4.4 Kitkat and will have to wait the Lollipop release to fully utilize the 64 Bit Snapdragon 615. Lastly, from what we learn the Xiaomi Redmi 2S will measure 134 x 67.21 x 9.2mm and weigh 132 grams. Xiaomi Redmi 2 can be preordered for 699yuan ($112.6) today and fully on sale at January 9th. (also is available for international buyers at Oppomart)

 

[cirr]

Here is a toast to Xiaomi‘s selling OVER 100 million smartphones and other devices in 2015.

 

[cirr]

takee1 Holographic Smartphone Wins 2015 CES Innovations Award

SHENZHEN, China, Jan. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- takee1 holographic smartphone, a product fully representative of what can and is being created in China today as well as the brainchild of Estar Technology Group Co., Ltd., won the 2015 CES Innovations Award recently at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the internationally renowned electronics and technology trade show held annually in Las Vegas. The honor reflects the international recognition of the world's first "holographic smartphone" and is a testament to Chinese innovation capabilities in the smartphone market.

The CES innovation award review process is a very strict one, with the products that are submitted judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, independent engineers and members of the trade media who seek to identify outstanding design and engineering in cutting edge consumer electronics products. The takee1 holographic smart phone scored highly across all judging criteria.

With the holographic display, air touch and eye-tracking technologies, the takee1 holographic smartphone gained the favor of the panel. The panel concluded that the smartphone is the world's first mobile device to integrate smart holographic technology, representing a great achievement in innovation.

An industry expert said, "The biggest difference between the holographic display technology and legacy naked-eye 3D displays is that you can watch 3D content directly without the need for any intermediary tools or holography that can bring on dizziness for some viewers; secondly, with the holographic technology, viewers can watch all form of 3D content from different perspectives and positions, truly providing a sense of really 'being there'. This is something that traditional 3D technology has failed to achieve."

While both the design and the basic configuration of the smartphone are guaranteed at a "flagship product" level, the smartphone sends a different stereoscopic display effect to each eye with its 5.5" holographic screen. This is indeed a boon to the many users who seek the ultimate visual experience. Creation of the takee1 holographic smart phone is a major milestone in changing the thinking about the Chinese smartphone industry - traditionally the world has thought that all Chinese handsets were simply copycat products.

takee1 holographic smartphone has a built-in holographic data platform-the Cloud Cube. The user can enjoy rich 3D videos, pictures, games and an unprecedented visual feast by logging on to the data platform where they can place their order. This is sure to give birth to new business opportunities and a new ecological chain across the smartphone industry.

Judging from takee1 holographic smart phone's CES innovation award, it is becoming clear that China is undergoing a transformation from "made-in-China" to "created-in-China", as China continues to optimize the innovation environment, and the world comes to recognize and respect the Chinese handset industry and what it can create and produce.

About Estar:

Estar Technology Group Co., Ltd., established in 2004, is a high-tech manufacturer devoted to scientific research, product application, system platform and brand building. Estar has been working in the innovative display industry for over 10 years with 4 wholly-owned subsidiaries under its wing. The firm has founded an innovation research institute and a R&D center in Silicon Valley and set up the world's largest holographic application platform - the Cloud Cube. Estar has also formed partnerships with Baidu, Tudou and iqiyi.com to develop operation and application systems. It provides core technologies and products to major domestic and international tech firms. Estar is the owner of the world's first holographic handset brand takee and the world first smart short-distance projection product Tatoo. Over 200 high-ranking researchers work at Estar.


SOURCE Estar Technology Group Co., Ltd.

 

[cirr]

Baidu gets ticking with new search app for smartwatches


Steven Millward

26 minutes ago

Chinese search giant Baidu has quietly launched a voice search app specially built for Android Wear smartwatches. The Baidu Watch app accepts voice input and gives back a snippet of text that displays on a smartwatch screen. Users can opt to tap the watch screen to open up a normal web page on their smartphones.

The audience for this new app is likely rather small, due to the wide-scale censoring of Google services in China, which makes it a challenge to use a Google-focused system like Android Wear.

“Android-based smartwatches don’t work smoothly in China and that might discourage people from buying smartwatches,” says Kaiser Kuo, Baidu’s director of international communications. That’s why Baidu decided to make the app for China’s smartwatch enthusiasts, he explains to Tech in Asia. Kuo adds that future updates to the Baidu Watch app will see more search result widgets optimized for the watch screen so that there’s less need to get more information from your smartphone. Plus, the team is working on simple reminders that a user can give themselves or even send to a friend. “Like, a reminder to drink more water,” Kuo says.

The new app supports six popular Android Wear-based watches like the Moto 360 and the Samsung Gear 2. But it doesn’t work with Chinese brand smartwatches, which tend to craft their own smartwatch ROMs out of full versions of Android, such as the GEAK Watch we reviewed last year. At the moment, it’s only available on Google Play, which is blocked in China, so this app is clearly only for true Android geeks who know their way around a proxy server. Kuo says that it will arrive in local third-party Android app stores soon.

While this is Baidu’s first foray into smartwatches, it’s certainly not the company’s first voice-based search app. In December 2012, Baidu launched a mobile voice assistant app – like Apple’s Siri or Google Now – called Baidu Voice Assistant.

 

[TaiShang]

Baidu and Tencent’s ecommerce joint venture with Wanda nabs $161M funding

Today Wanda Group, the Chinese commercial real estate firm best known for its movie theater chains, announced that its joint ecommerce venture with Tencent and Baidu closed a RMB 1 billion (US$161 million) funding round. The two investment funds, Xude Rendao and Centec Networks, will take 2 percent and 3 percent equity in the company, respectively. Wanda Group states that Tencent and Baidu now each hold a 15 percent stake in the venture, which is now valued at RMB 20 billion (about US$3.2 billion).

The Wanda-Tencent-Baidu ecommerce venture (which Wanda refers to as Wand E-commerce in its release) was publicly announced back in August. Wanda maintained a 70 percent stake in the US$814 million venture, with Tencent and Baidu splitting the remainder evenly. While the companies gave few specific details regarding the venture’s execution, their public statements repeatedly mentioned the importance of online-to-offline commerce. When one factor’s in Baidus commitment to maps and beacon technology, WeChat’s commitment to payments and social, and Wanda’s entertainment properties, it’s easy to speculate – but hard to know specifically – how the venture might play out.

Following the news of the venture’s formation, Wanda has kept quiet regarding its development. But in December it purchased a stake in 99Bill, an Alipay competitor. That would appear to confirm Wanda’s interest in integrating online payments into its offline services, and challenge previous assumptions that Wanda would be hopping aboard the WeChat Payments train.

Despite how little is known about the joint venture, Wanda looks set to own a bevy of virtual real estate in addition to its physical real estate. “O2O places a greater importance on the link between people and services than traditional commercial methods, with the size of the market considerably greater than just physical transactions,” its statement reads. “Wanda possesses the world’s largest offline consumer network, with 1.5 million customers in 2014 and an estimated 6 billion customers by 2020. If Wanda E-commerce can combine its offline and online resources effectively, it has the potential to become a new Internet giant with incredible potential.” In other words, Wanda is thinking big.

Wanda adds that it will announce an additional funding round in late 2015.

New Beautiful Vivo Device Appears in Live Pictures!

January 5, 2015

Vivo is widely known in China and getting more and more attention internationally. Is is known for releasing very thin or even the thinnest devices in the world like the recently announced X5Max, devices with Hi-Fi audio features, great cameras etc.

This time around, the company is about to unveil yet another device in their portfolio – Y29.





As you can see from the above pictures of the device, which is yet to be officially released, it spots a dual glass sandwich construction, meaning that there is a glass panel on the front and the back of the device. We cannot see the device from the front, but we presume it will have the usual Vivo looks as it has on all the devices. Looking further to the device, the back features glass and the camera with the LED flash placement on the top left corner, which reminds us a little bit of inspiration by the Sony Xperia family devices. In addition, the device has aluminium frame going around, which always adds some premium look and feel.

All this beauty is packed in a very light (only 128g) and slim body (6.67mm).

As far as specs go, the Y29 appears to a be a midrange device. The smartphone is said to have 5 inches (only 720p) screen, which is fairly compact in size. What is more, the 64-bit Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM will be running the show along with the 16 GB of storage (information about the Micro SD card slot is not yet disclosed). In addition, there is a 13mp camera on the back and 5mp shooter on the front.

As usual to Vivo, the manufacturer adds the Hi-Fi audio goodies, which include Japanese AKM AK4375 embedded audio chip and other solutions to help your ears hear the joy.

We are not yet aware of the pricing and the availability of the device. Still, we expect it to come at the premium price tag and firstly released in China.

 

[cirr]

UC Browser beats out Chrome and Safari in China, India, and Pakistan, ranked 4th worldwide


Paul Bischoff

29 minutes ago

UC Browser, the third-party mobile browser made by China’s UCWeb now fully owned by Alibaba, announced it is the world’s most popular third-party mobile browser, according to StatCounter.

UC Browser now holds 11.1 percent of mobile browser pageview market share worldwide, overtaking Opera. UC Browser’s percent market share has actually slipped from 11.8 percent since a year ago, but Opera slipped even further, from 16.3 percent down to 9.1 percent.

UC Browser does not come pre-installed as the default browser on Android or iOS, so it still lags behind Chrome (29.8 percent), Android Browser (18.9 percent), and Safari (21.9 percent). Not just a one-off milestone, UC Browser has held the number four spot overall since October.

Its growth is led by China and India, where it holds the number one spots in both countries. It boasts 41.2 percent market share in India, up nine percent from a year earlier. That’s almost twice the market share of second-place Chrome.

In China, it’s in a heated race against the stock Android browser, now barely outstripping its pre-installed rival by less than one percent.

In addition to China and India, UC Browser also claims the number one spot in Pakistan (29.1 percent), and the number two spots in Indonesia (19.8 percent), Nigeria (13.1 percent), and Bangladesh (18.5 percent).

UCWeb also disclosed triple-digit percent growth in Russia and Brazil.

UCWeb reports over 500 million quarterly active users, while Alibaba’s prospectus says it had 264 million monthly active users as of June 2014. This new announcement says the global daily active user count has grown 50 percent in the second half of 2014, so we estimate monthly active users are probably somewhere north of 350 million.

UC Browser is one of a rare few Chinese apps to find mass appeal outside mainland China, and the latest stats show its momentum continues to grow.

 

[cirr]

Wintek's bankruptcy affects Xiaomi phone's Q4 sales figure

OFweek | Posted: 06 Jan 2015, 17:14

According to information released by Xiaomi, the company sold around 170 million smartphones in Q414, while it sold 180 million in the previous quarter. The 4th quarter is traditionally a high season for smartphone sales, the decreased figure of Q4 seems rather questionable.

Wang Yang, the research director of iSuppli indicated that, the sudden bankruptcy of Xiaomi phones' display supplier Wintek in October 2014 caused a display shortage for the Chinese smartphone maker, thus it sold 4 million less phones than expected. Xiaomi had to search for a new supplier and it took time for the new comer to reach the quality standard and capacity set out by Xiaomi, which eventually affected Xiaomi phone's shipments and sales figures.