Tough Indian market means Xiaomi may miss sales target
Xiaomi has been one of the fastest growing smartphone companies for successive quarters and pitched a lofty sales target of 100 million unit this year back at the start of 2015. However, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is thought likely to miss this target by quite a margin, raising concerns about the company’s future growth prospects.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun already scaled back this target to 80 million phones in March, but even this figure began to look in doubt after the company announced that it had sold 34.7 million smartphones come the first half of 2015.
Xiaomi in video:
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The latest estimate from market research firm Trendforce suggests that Xiaomi will sell 70 million phones this year. While still a gain on 2014’s 60 million sales, it’s quite a long way from Xioami’s initial expectation for the year. Canalys research expects that Xiaomi’s Q3 sales in 2015 actually dropped year-on-year, a first for the company.
This news comes despite Xiaomi entering the Indian smartphone market, which was expected to give the company a substantial sales boost. However, saturation in its home territory of China and the nature of the highly competitive Indian market has created a difficult environment for the company. Xiaomi has not had quite the major impact on India that perhaps had been expected, the company is currently sitting with less than the 4 percent of the market that it grabbed when it first entered India. Instead, Chinse rivals such as Lenovo and local Indian manufacturers have secured larger shares of the market.
Xiaomi’s expansion plans could still prove key to the company’s future growth. The company has not yet made a move on many major global markets yet, with Europe and much of Asia still relying on import retailers to try out Xiaomi’s products. Talk is also increasingly turning to the company’s eventual US launch, with a handset also spotted at the FCC recently too. Furthermore, Xiaomi is increasingly moving into new areas of consumer electronics, which could help the company withstand any slowdown on the mobile market.
See also: Redmi 2 Pro passes through the FCC, sparks speculation about Xiaomi’s US launch
Despite a slowdown this year, Xiaomi still has plenty of room left to manoeuvre and the firm is still growing. But even China’s latest mobile darling isn’t immune to the highly competitive nature of the low cost smartphone market.
Hidden ‘Indoor Survey’ App Created by Apple Discovered on App Store
Apple last week quietly launched a new first-party app called Indoor Survey [Direct Link], which allows its users to map out the interior space of a building using their iPhone. Spotted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith yesterday evening, the app specifically uses radio frequency signals in concert with an iPhone’s various sensor data to successfully map an interior location (via AppleInsider).
The app, however, doesn’t appear to be entirely functional as of yet. When prompted with Indoor Survey’s home menu, after entering an Apple ID and password, users will be met with an Authorization Failed message and be barred from further accessing the app’s suggested indoor mapping abilities. The app is also briefly mentioned on a banner within Apple Maps Connect after signing in, asking users to sign up to the indoor mapping initiative if they represent a venue with a handful of attributes Apple is looking for.
“Enable indoor positioning within a venue using the Indoor Survey app. By dropping ‘points’ on a map within the Survey App, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through. As you do so, the indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data. The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware.”
The new app could be the result of Apple’s purchase of WifiSLAM in 2013. The indoor location company had developed a way for an app to detect someone’s location within a building using Wi-Fi signals, which seems to be on par with Indoor Survey’s abilities today. The technology is slightly similar to the company’s iBeacons software it runs in all of its retail stores, which locates a user’s iPhone when entering an Apple Store and updates them on various promotions, classes, and product information.
Currently, Indoor Survey can’t be found using the search function on the App Store and can only be discovered via iTunes directly. The app was last updated on October 27, so it had been on the App Store for at least a week before anyone discovered it. The app’s description mentions requiring iOS 9 or later with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch compatibility and an 18MB download size.
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Skype co-founders build delivery bot that rides on sidewalks
While companies like Amazon and Google are betting on airborne drones for the future of delivery, two of the founders of Skype are taking a more pedestrian approach. They’ve created a company called Starship Technologies, and its eponymous robots are autonomous rovers that drive along sidewalks to carry packages at an average speed of 4mph. The aim is to deliver “two grocery bags” worth of goods (weighing up to 20lbs) in 5-30 minutes for “10-15 times less than the cost of current last-mile delivery alternatives.”
Source: Starship Technologies
Apple’s quietly working on a new indoor mapping system
Apple has discreetly released an RF-based interior positioning app called Indoor Survey, as spotted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith. It appeared recently on the App Store, and the description says you can “drop ‘points’ on a map within the Survey App [to] indicate your position within the venue as you walk through. As you do so, the Indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data.” That lets you find your position inside a mall, arena or other venue “without the need to install special hardware,” according to Apple.
Via: Apple Insider
Source: iTunes
Huawei’s Mate 8 flagship will launch on November 26
Huawei recently announced its schedule for updating its Honor brand of smartphones to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and now it’s revealed via its Weibo account when it will launch its latest flagship handset, the Mate 8.
From the image above, it would appear that the Mate 8 will launch on November 8. The handset is believed to carry Huawei’s latest processor, the Kirin 950, which is expected to be revealed in the next couple of days on November 5. The Kirin 950 is an Octa-core (4 x A53 + 4 x A72) processor clocked at 2.4GHz with 64-bit compatibility. A Mali-T880 GPU and an i7 co-processor are also present. Not to be confused with Intel’s Core-i7 processors, the Mate 8’s i7 co-processor will take care of the less intensive tasks such as sensory, connectivity and security functions.
The Mate 8 is believed to feature a 2.5D Force Touch display thought to be either 5.7 or 6-inches in size. The standard version is said to sport a 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage, while the high-end variant could have 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. 20MP rear cameras and 8MP selfie snappers will feature on both variants, along with a large capacity battery. There isn’t too much longer to wait until the big reveal, what would you like to see featured in Huawei’s Mate 8?
Source: Huawei (Weibo)
Via: GizmoChina
Come comment on this article: Huawei’s Mate 8 flagship will launch on November 26
World’s biggest floating wind farm is coming to Scotland
Just days after Danish energy provider Dong announced it had signed off plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm comes news of another milestone in the UK’s push for renewable energy. The Scottish Government has confirmed it has given consent to another Scandinavian company, Norway’s Statoil, to build Britain’s first floating wind farm. A park consisting of five 6MW turbines will be installed off the coast of Peterhead, eclipsing Japan’s single 7MW turbine to become the world’s largest offshore wind development.
Via: Scotsman
Source: Scotland.gov
Top Apple TV Apps Revealed With Games Topping the Lists
On Friday, Apple officially launched the fourth-generation Apple TV, which for the first time included an App Store.
While Apple includes a list of featured apps, there are currently no other methods for discoverability, and users can’t browse categories or Top Charts to find other Apple TV Apps that haven’t been explicitly featured.
Currently, the Apple TV App Store only shows what’s featured. If your game isn’t featured, it effectively doesn’t exist. There’s no way to browse genres, top lists don’t exist (this arguably might be a good thing), and finding something that isn’t featured requires typing its name in the search field. Siri search doesn’t work on apps (yet?) so the amount of friction to download a game like Highway Rider which didn’t make the feature cut is not only incredible but also has resulted in three sales. (Well, make that four, as I bought it.)
After some digging, SlideToPlay‘s Jeff Scott discovered that Apple was already publishing Apple TV top lists, even if they weren’t yet exposed anywhere. Scott has now compiled a realtime list of the top overall Apple TV apps as well as individual category lists for both free and paid apps.
At the time of this writing, the overall top 10 apps include:
Top 10 Paid
1 – Beat Sports (Apple TV Only)
2 – SimpleX – for Plex (Apple TV Only)
3 – Galaxy on Fire™ – Manticore RISING (Apple TV Only)
4 – Lumino City (+ Universal)
5 – Alto’s Adventure (+ Universal)
6 – Does not Commute TV (Apple TV Only)
7 – Battle Supremacy: Evolution (+ Universal)
8 – Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved (+ Universal)
9 – Shoot The Zombirds (+ Universal)
10 – Oceanhorn ™ (+ Universal)
Top 10 Free
1 – Rayman Adventures (Apple TV Only)
2 – Crossy Road – Endless Arcade Hopper (+ Universal)
3 – HBO NOW (+ Universal)
4 – The Nat Geo TV (+ Universal)
5 – FOX NOW (+ Universal)
6 – SHOWTIME (+ Universal)
7 – HISTORY (+ Universal)
8 – CNNgo (Apple TV Only)
9 – CBS (+ Universal)
10 – Asphalt 8: Airborne (+ Universal)
Games make up the majority of the top spots in the Top Paid listings, while media apps dominate the Top Free listings. At the moment, Jeff Scott reports there are presently 996 Apple TV apps in the App Store. The full list on SlideToPlay covers the top 200, as well as the breakdown within different categories.
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World’s biggest floating wind farm is coming to Scotland
Just days after Danish energy provider Dong announced it had signed off plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm comes news of another milestone in the UK’s push for renewable energy. The Scottish Government has confirmed it has given consent to another Scandinavian company, Norway’s Statoil, to build Britain’s first floating wind farm. A park consisting of five 6MW turbines will be installed off the coast of Peterhead, eclipsing Japan’s single 7MW turbine to become the world’s largest offshore wind development.
Via: Scotsman
Source: Scotland.gov
You can grab the 15 wallpapers from Samsung’s Galaxy View right here
If, for whatever reason (no judgement here), you’ve been itching to get your hands on the wallpapers from Samsung’s monster-sized tablet, the Galaxy View, today is your lucky day. There are 15 wallpapers in total, in 1280 x 1280/1920 x 1920 resolutions, all of which are available after the break.
The wallpapers come courtesy of SamMobile. To download them all you have to do is simply click the image and right-click to save, or you can simply download the whole caboodle in one handy zip file from Mega. Enjoy!
Source: SamMobile
Come comment on this article: You can grab the 15 wallpapers from Samsung’s Galaxy View right here
Sony’s Xperia Z4 (Z3+) wasn’t considered good enough to be used by Bond in his latest flick
Daniel Craig can be seen in cinemas in his latest Bond flick, Spectre, and here we have some behind-the-scenes news regarding the product placement and marketing side of things. According to some leaked emails, it would appear that Sony initially wanted its Xperia Z4 (or should it rather be the Z3+ as it is known outside of Japan) to be James Bond’s choice of smartphone, a move that both Bond director Sam Mendes and actor Daniel Craig had reservations about.
This was despite Daniel Craig being offered $5 million to use the Xperia Z4 in the film.
“BEYOND the $$ factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby Sam and Daniel don’t like the Sony phone for the film (the thinking, subjectively/objectively is that James Bond only uses the “best,” and in their minds, the Sony phone is not the “best”). Having said that, David said if Sony made a fair market offer, that Barbara, armed with a “solid” financial proposal would go to work on Sam and Daniel and get this pushed through creatively. He obviously can’t guarantee that result (and he said as much), but he seemed very genuine and forthright on our call.”
Besides the actor and director both having issues with the Xperia Z4, believing that the ‘Sony phone was not the best‘, the producer, Barbara Broccoli, also wanted Sony to up its $18 million marketing budget for both promoting Spectre, in addition to higher payments for the film’s cast and crew’s use of the phones. The issue was further muddied by an offer from Samsung with a vastly higher marketing figure of $50 million along with a $5 million fee just for using its phones in the film. Imagine James Bond with a Galaxy Note 5, if you will, perhaps defending himself with the S Pen? Although that would be nigh on impossible seeing as the handset is still not available in the UK…But I digress.
The Samsung offer would appear to have been used simply to spur Sony into upping its own offering. As we all know, Sony announced its latest range of handsets in September, with the Xperia Z5 being used by Bond in Spectre. Either the Z5 is now being perceived as the ‘best phone‘ or Sony has upped its marketing budget and/or paid a higher fee for the handset to be used in the film.
Source: BusinessInsider (UK)
Come comment on this article: Sony’s Xperia Z4 (Z3+) wasn’t considered good enough to be used by Bond in his latest flick
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