Latest news with #mobileindustry
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
AI Integration: HONOR offers human-centric devices
HONOR looks set to dominate premium and mid-range smartphones category with the launch of its new flagship device 400 Series in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in Dubai on May 21, its top official says. Laurence Li, General Manager for HONOR GCC, said latest smart gadget introduces AI-powered features like AI Subtitles, providing real-time speech-to-text conversation for videos or recording. It also includes ground-breaking 200-megapixel (MP) AI camera and AI Creative Editor to ensure strong performance, improved durability and standout design. "HONOR's 400 Series hit the UAE shelves on May 29 with free gifts worth Dh879. The buyers can also book their device from our Online Store, Experience Store and leading retail outlets such as Sharaf DG, Emax, Jumbo, Lulu, Carrefour, Virgin Megastore, Amazon, Eros, KM Trading, Ecity, Etisalat by e&, du, and noon, among others," Li told BTR during a media roundtable at the launch event of the company's new flagship device in the UAE. Laurance, an industry veteran with almost two decades extensive experience in the mobile phone industry, said tech-savvy users can get free gifts up to Dh1,396 with online purchase of HONOR 400 Series smartphones in five different colours — Midnight Black, Meteor Silver, Desert Gold, Lunar Grey and Tidal Blue. "The HONOR 400 will cost Dh1,399 while its pro variant is priced at Dh2,499 with hosts of innovative and creative AI-powered editing tools, empowering users to elevate their visual storytelling experience," he said. Expanding GCC footprint Laurance said HONOR will expand its presence in the Gulf region by opening more outlets in the UAE, Qatar and Oman to cater to rising demand of its innovative smartphones, tablets, and wearables. "We're going to have seven stores in the UAE by year-end including two new outlets in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. The emirate has a room to have more HONOR stores due to rising demand of its products," he said. "In addition to the UAE, HONOR has expanded its presence in Qatar by inaugurating a new store in Doha earlier this month," he said, adding that the company will open an outlet in Oman very soon. Laurance currently oversees HONOR's operations in the GCC region. Based in Dubai offices he manages multi-country business activities in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and other countries in the region. To a question, he said HONOR is open to explore new markets across the Middle East and Africa as there is a strong demand for premium and mid-range smartphones in the region. 'Opening new stores and coordinating with leading retailers are part of our marketing strategy to strengthen our position in GCC and beyond. It will help not only to showcase our flagship devices at premier locations, but also offers best after-sales service to HONOR's customers,' he said. Strong Q1 data Laurance, who played a pivotal role in establishing HONOR's ecommerce presence from the ground up, significantly contributing to the brand's recognition and growth among overseas consumers, said strong first-quarter sales data indicates a promising future of HONOR's products in the region. "HONOR's business surged around 60% year-on-year basis during the January-March 2025 quarter, thanks to 56% year-on-year increase in the Magic7 Pro sales and 100% revenue growth in Magic V3 smartphones," he said. "Our goal for the HONOR 400 Series is to lead the premium and mid-range category in the GCC region. Based on pre-launch feedback about 400 Series, we expect strong sales in the UAE, Qatar and Oman with significant retail and online traction. 'HONOR has also noticed significant growth in its tablet business, which has increased more than double during the first quarter of 2025,' Laurance said. In reply to a question about the HONOR's outlook about its products across the Gulf region, he said GCC is one of the growing markets for the company. 'We've launched several devices this year including the Magic7 Pro, Magic7 RSR, X9b, and now the HONOR 400 Series. There are many more are in the pipeline, and we're expected to launch several smartphones and foldables in second half of the year, continuing our momentum with flagship and lifestyle models,' he said. Rising market share Laurance proudly claimed leading position in premier and mid-range smartphone segment and said 400 Series flagship devices and new tablets will further strengthen HONOR's position in the region. 'In addition to leading smartphones segment, HONOR is among top three leading global brands for tablets. Our tablet business posts 100% growth every year and it is contributing significantly to increasing market share of the company,' he said. 'We're on track to achieve about 20% market share in the GCC region after establishing HONOR as a trustworthy global tech brand in the past four years. We've achieved 10% market share in 2024 and are confident to hit 15% mark this year as HONOR has become a fastest-growing tech brand in the region,' he said. To a question, Laurance attributed the credit to multibillion investment in research and development (R&D) programme to stay ahead of its competitors worldwide. 'HONOR has allocated $10 billion budget for R&D in next five years to launch innovative and AI-driven gadgets as AI has become a game-changer in almost every field. AI is an integral part of our lives and saves time and resolve issues through human-centric devices in the Gulf region and worldwide,' he said. AI devices in demand Laurance highlighted salient features and advantages of rising AI role in its flagship devices and said the revolutionary tech is going to redefine the tech enthusiasts experience in coming years. 'HONOR has established itself as a leading smartphone manufacturer offering human-centric devices based on advanced generative AI technology. This is just the beginning of introducing AI benefits to tech enthusiasts to make their lives easy and comfortable,' he said. 'We're keen to integrate AI in our smart devises in best possible way. Our 400 Series is packed with best AI features to multiply user experience while using the smart gadgets. Be part of HONOR's global AI strategy and experience 400 series smartphones to experience the difference using a devise with AI or without AI features,' Laurance said while advising tech-savvy consumers across the GCC. 'AI knows you better than you know yourself and it can plan your travel, take care of your health and medical, etc. You can enjoy your life with AI as it is like a new search engine or life planner today,' Laurance concluded.
Phone Arena
4 days ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Samsung and Apple's underperformance causes rare decline for Europe's smartphone market
While the mobile industry as a whole grew in Q1 2025 according to all major analytics firms, the latest report compiled by Counterpoint Research puts one of the largest smartphone markets in the world at a worrying impasse. That's far from shocking given that China's estimates for the opening 90 days of the year were up 5 percent compared to Q1 2024 at the same time that global figures only increased by 1 percent (or less). Still, it's certainly disappointing to see Europe's first-quarter smartphone shipments go down by 4 percent between last year and this year, especially when you consider that the two biggest vendors out there happened to release new devices that were expected to sell like hotcakes at the beginning of 2025. No, I'm not expecting you to try to guess the name of Europe's top smartphone market performer in the January-March 2025 timeframe and I'm not going to keep you waiting either. That's Honor rather than Samsung or Apple, although the latter two are still the old continent's first and second most successful vendors with 33 and 26 percent of the quarter's total shipments respectively. Honor is the only big gainer among Europe's top five smartphone vendors this quarter. But while Samsung's numbers fell by 2 percent and Apple improved its sales by... 2 percent, Honor somehow managed to jump 20 percent between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, ranking fourth overall after overtaking Realme. Honor, mind you, made the quarterly top five for the first time a year ago, and if its "continued aggressive strategy in Europe", well, continues, the Chinese brand could surpass domestic arch-rival Xiaomi next to crack the regional podium (also for the first time). Xiaomi, in case you're wondering, is performing worse than Samsung but better than the "Others" category, losing 8 percent of the smartphone shipments racked up in Europe between January and March 2024. That "Others" segment (which obviously includes all kinds of companies from Motorola to Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus) might be largely responsible for the market's aforementioned 4 percent decline. That's the first such negative result posted in Europe in four quarters, although analysts remain confident (despite all the uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump's tariff policies) that sales could return to growth "by the end of the year." Released in early February around the world, Samsung's ultra-high-end Galaxy S25 trio was supposed to improve on the global box-office performance of last year's Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra. But at least in Europe in Q1, that doesn't seem to have happened, and Counterpoint researchers think Samsung's lack of major upgrades is largely to blame for the S25 family's obvious underperformance. The iPhone 16e and Galaxy S25 are not the box-office hits their manufacturers initially expected. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena Apple's budget-friendly iPhone 16e, meanwhile, is at the same time named as the driving force behind its maker's (modest) year-on-year sales increase and described as a "relatively poor" seller in Europe compared to "some" other regions. That may sound contradictory at first, but if you think about it, it makes sense and it kind of perfectly characterizes a device that's too affordable to fail but too expensive to set the industry on fire. Basically, the best way to describe the iPhone 16e 's sales results on the old continent seems to be as mixed, which is naturally not what can be said about such massively popular Honor handsets as the entry-level X6b, mid-end 20 series, and high-end Magic 7 and V3. Clearly, that type of broad, all-encompassing, and all-pleasing product portfolio is the best growth strategy in Europe... and not only in Europe right now.
Phone Arena
7 days ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Consumers are beginning to turn away from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, new data shows
Consumer anger over what has been termed as predatory practices is moving beyond social media. AT&T , T-Mobile , and Verizon have all raised prices in recent months. As a result, rivals including cable companies that have branched out into telecommunication and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are gaining customers at a fast clip. AT&T Verizon Cox, which has decided to merge with Charter, has approximately 200,000 mobile lines, which is impressive given the company only started offering mobile services across all its markets in January 2023. The company is believed to have been adding 20,000 to 25,000 phone lines every quarter, per data from research institute MoffettNathanson shared by Light Reading . Cable companies have become a threat for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. | Image Credit - MoffettNathanso Overall, the cable industry accounted for 18 percent of total mobile industry gross additions, which is the total number of subscribers added in a period without accounting for cancellations. While impressive, this performance wasn't enough to beat out the Big 3 outdo T-Mobile (around 30 percent), Verizon (nearly 27 percent), and AT&T (approximately 24 percent). It's easy to make a connection here: some, if not all, of the postpaid pain has been inflicted on AT&T , T-Mobile , and Verizon by cable companies.
National Post
20-05-2025
- National Post
SD Memory Cards Celebrates 25 Years as the World's Favorite Memory Card
Article content SDA celebrates 20 th Anniversary of microSD, donates to plant trees, empower women, remains dedicated to its legacy of innovation contributing to the advancement of technology for the convenience, enjoyment, and well-being of consumers Article content Article content SAN RAMON, Calif. — SD Association (SDA) is celebrating the 25 th anniversary of the venerable SD memory card launched in 2000 and its long history of improving the lives of billions of people globally in numerous ways. Throughout the last 25 years, SD and microSD memory cards have sold more than 12 billion cards and evolved by offering massive storage capacities and lightning fast speeds, meeting industry needs. SD memory cards remain the most used removable storage card for consumer electronic devices. Throughout the last 25 years, SD and microSD memory cards have sold more than 12 billion cards and evolved by offering massive storage capacities and lightning fast speeds, meeting industry needs for today and tomorrow. Article content This year, the SDA is celebrating another significant milestone, the 20 th anniversary of the ground-breaking microSD. microSD memory cards remain a powerful and popular storage choice and played a pivotal role in transforming the mobile industry as the first storage expansion option for billions of mobile phones. Selfies, mobile phone photography, enjoying music and videos on a mobile phone all became possible because of innovation driven by the SDA. Today, SD memory cards remain a valued part of the consumer and industrial products, allowing people to download and enjoy content from the world's most popular video streaming services, store games and run apps directly from a card, and use those cards as an efficient memory expansion of their products. Article content To honor the support SD technology customers worldwide overwhelmingly provided SD during the past 25 years, the SDA contributed to OneTreePlanted and the Morino Project, expediting the planting of 25,000 trees around the world to help fight climate change and benefit the planet. It also contributed $25,000 to the Audiopedia Foundation to support its efforts to empower African women through preloading audio content onto microSD memory cards allowing the most basic mobile phones to become portals of empowerment, turning isolated communities into connected hubs of health, financial, and educational information. Article content Some of the most advanced gaming consoles and handheld gaming devices rely on SD memory cards for storage expansion. This storage feature allows players to easily upgrade their devices and maintain a broad portfolio of their favorite digital games while optimizing their user experience. Article content 'SD memory cards continue delivering portability and convenience, letting people upgrade the storage in their devices at any time thanks to the dedication and vision of our nearly 800 SDA members,' said Yosi Pinto, Chairman of the SDA. 'The cards continue to help product manufacturers innovate and provide better user experience because SD is a proven storage solution that continuously evolves with technology evolutions and market needs requiring higher speed data access and larger capacities.' Article content Progress & Innovation: SD Memory Card Statistics Article content The first SD card sold in 2000 provided just 8 megabytes of storage capacity, whereas today's SDUC or microSDUC cards offer 4 terabytes of capacity, a 500,000 percent capacity increase Boosted card speeds specifications from 12.5 MB/sec to ~4GB/sec with the latest SD Express specification, more than x300 speed increase Maintained backward compatibility support with plug-and-play convenience Article content 'The SDA is laser-focused on ensuring its standards remain a compelling storage choice across an extensive variety of products and uses for both consumers and businesses,' said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, President of the SDA. 'We expect SD memory cards to remain a critical, cost-effective storage option across a variety of applications and devices in the future since 394 zettabytes of data is expected to be created by 2028.' Article content SD enables new applications with unique storage requirements not imagined 25 years ago. VR/AR, drones, gaming consoles, medical devices, 360-degree cameras, nature monitoring, IoT, Edge computing and space exploration increasingly rely on SD. With the growth of AI, storage needs are expected to increase on devices and will require SD Express memory cards and their SSD-level performance and features. Article content The SDA is a global ecosystem of nearly 800 technology companies charged with setting interoperable SD standards. The SDA encourages the development of consumer electronics, wireless communication, digital imaging, industrial and networking products utilizing market-leading SD technology. The SD standard is the number one choice for consumers and businesses, having earned more than 80 percent of the memory card market with its reliable interoperability and easy-to-use format. Today, smartphones, tablets, drones, IoT devices, HDTVs, audio players, automotive systems, computers, digital cameras, and a variety of industrial uses feature SD interoperability. For more information about SDA or to join, please visit the Association's website, Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
Phone Arena
13-05-2025
- Phone Arena
The OnePlus Pad 2 Pro is an elite Android tablet with a stunningly low price... in China
Have you noticed that many of the world's best Android phones and tablets are often sold exclusively in the world's most populous country at virtually unbeatable prices? That's obviously especially true for China-based tech outfits like OnePlus, which still hasn't released the remarkably affordable Ace 5 Pro handset outside of its domestic market. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor; 256 and 512GB storage variants; 8, 12, and 16GB RAM options; 13.2-inch LCD screen with 3392 x 2400 pixel resolution and 144Hz refresh rate technology; Android 15 -based ColorOS 15.0 software; -based ColorOS 15.0 software; 13MP rear-facing camera; 8MP front-facing camera; 12,140mAh battery; 67W charging capabilities; 289.61 x 209.66 x 5.97mm dimensions; 675 grams weight; USB Type-C 3.2 port; Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. If any of the above specifications sound familiar or if you feel like you've seen the below design before, then congratulations, you're one of the most ardent followers of the mobile industry I know. That's because the OnePlus Pad 2 Pro is not only predictably similar to the smaller and slightly lower-end OnePlus Pad 2, but pretty much a carbon copy of the Oppo Pad 4 Pro as well. That hefty battery is clearly a key selling point here. | Image Credit -- OnePlus I'm not just speaking from a cosmetic perspective either, as the two brothers from different mother... brands come with the exact same screen... and processor, and storage and memory configurations, and cameras, and battery capacity, and everything. Unfortunately, while its label might make you hopeful of eventual US or Europe availability, there's clearly a good chance the OnePlus Pad 2 Pro will take a page out of the original Pad Pro's limited release playbook rather than following in the footsteps of the non-Pro OnePlus Pad and OnePlus Pad 2. That's especially sad when you consider how few Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered tablets can be purchased stateside right now. The likes of the Galaxy Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra, which come packing a weaker MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ SoC, are also equipped with lower-than-67W charging technology, not to mention the rather disappointing (compared to the OnePlus Pad 2 Pro) 11,200mAh battery size of the larger of those two super-premium Samsung slates. Probably not. In fact, I'm willing to bet you exactly $444 that you're never going to guess the starting price of this impressively thin, powerful, fast, and stylish Android tablet without peeking on social media or the official Chinese online Oppo shop. The remarkably large and high-quality 13.2-inch screen is another big OnePlus Pad 2 Pro strength. | Image Credit -- OnePlus Yes, boys and girls, the cheapest OnePlus Pad 2 Pro model costs only 3,199 yuan (or 444 US dollars) with a perfectly respectable combination of 256 gigs of internal storage space and 8GB RAM. Even the top-of-the-line configuration is on pre-order in China at the rough equivalent of $555 (3,999 yuan) with a whopping 16GB memory count and 512GB local digital hoarding room. It's obviously not fair to compare those price tags with how much the aforementioned Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Tab S10 Ultra (not to mention Apple's latest and greatest iPad Pros) typically set you back in the US, but at the same time, some of you fine bargain-hunting folks based in the Western Hemisphere might want to reevaluate your life choices right about now.
