Nokia to Acquire Health Tracking Firm Withings in $192 Million Deal

Nokia this morning announced it will buy French health tracking company Withings for an estimated $192 million, as the company seeks to re-establish itself in the consumer electronics market.

Withings makes iOS-compatible smart connected home products as well as a range of health and fitness wearables such as the Go activity tracker and its stylish Activité smartwatch range. The company’s products sync with its Health Mate iOS app, which lets users track their activity, weight, and food consumed, and interact with friends to reach fitness goals, among other features.

Nokia has focused on its network equipment business and commercial VR solutions since it sold its mobile division to Microsoft in 2013. The Finish firm’s most recent high-profile product announcement was its $60,000 Ozo VR capture camera aimed at the film industry, but the latest announcement marks a significant shift for the company as it looks to expand into consumer digital health and the Internet of Things sector.

President and CEO of Nokia Rajeev Suri commented on the acquisition in a press release announcing the move.

We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market. With this acquisition, Nokia is strengthening its position in the Internet of Things in a way that leverages the power of our trusted brand, fits with our company purpose of expanding the human possibilities of the connected world, and puts us at the heart of a very large addressable market where we can make a meaningful difference in peoples’ lives.

The acquisition will see Withings’ 200 employees integrated into Nokia Technologies when the deal goes through later in the year.

Tags: Withings, Nokia
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Nokia is acquiring smartwatch maker Withings for $191 million

Nokia is staging its re-entry into the consumer market with the acquisition of French smartwatch maker Withings for $191 million. The acquisition is expected to close by the third quarter, following which Withings’ staff will be integrated into Nokia Technologies, the Finnish manufacturer’s consumer unit.

In a statement announcing the acquisition, president & CEO of Nokia Rajeev Suri said:

We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market.

With this acquisition, Nokia is strengthening its position in the Internet of Things in a way that leverages the power of our trusted brand, fits with our company purpose of expanding the human possibilities of the connected world, and puts us at the heart of a very large addressable market where we can make a meaningful difference in peoples’ lives.

Head of Nokia Technologies Ramzi Haidamus said that the acquisition is aimed at furthering innovation in the digital health segment:

Withings shares our vision for the future of digital health and their products are smart, well designed and already helping people live healthier lives. Combining their award-winning products and talented people with the world-class expertise and innovation of Nokia Technologies uniquely positions us to lead the next wave of innovation in digital health.

Withings’ latest smartwatch is the $169 Activité Steel. The watch offers a bevy of sensors that can track your daily activity, all in a chassis that looks like a traditional watch. In addition to smartwatches, Withings makes smart smales, connected alarm clocks, and home monitoring cameras. The vendor’s products are compatible with Android as well as iOS, with the Health Mate app giving you an overview of your daily statistics.

Withings’ products will live alongside the likes of the Ozo camera and the Nokia N1 tablet. It will be interesting to see the products that come out of the partnership.

LeEco will set up manufacturing and research units in India

Chinese vendor LeEco has announced plans of setting up a manufacturing and research units in India. The manufacturer will leverage the government’s “Make in India initiative, which incentivises local production of hardware.

LeEco’s vice chairman and co-founder Liu Hong told Indo-Asian News Service that the vendor is currently evaluating different options for its facility:

We have already applied for the single-brand retail licence with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The ministry for communications and information technology has given us options like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Raipur’s electronic cluster, Bhopal and Bhilwada (Rajasthan) to set up our manufacturing base. We will evaluate all the options before finalising our manufacturing location.

We are looking forward to meet the Indian Prime Minister and the Telecom Minister because we really want to contribute for ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. We would like them to understand our ecosystem and support us manufacturing in the country.

The manufacturer is also looking to set up retail stores around the country, and will establish an R&D center in Bengaluru:

We plan to open 8 to 10 LeEco stores across the country as well as 500 franchise stores at an initial investment of nearly Rs. 50 crores.

India has some of the best software engineers in the world. We will start with our research and development centre in Bengaluru. We would like to connect the Indian technology with our ecosystem and create products for the global users. We will make our ties more stronger.

LeEco is witnessing strong sales of the budget Le 1s, and the vendor is all set to unveil the Le 2 and Le 2 Pro in the country on May 3. By heavily investing in the market and looking to partner with regional content creators as well as roll out local CDNs (Content Delivery Networks), LeEco is aiming to become the third-largest vendor in the country:

India is now on the way China has already been and will be leading the smartphone market in the near future. The Indian consumers are demanding high-quality phones at reasonable price. We acknowledge this and see a great potential of manufacturing here.

Indian users are price sensitive. Samsung and Apple are available but are highly-priced; so we sell our products at a disruptive price with high quality.

Our goal is to be among the top three players in the Indian market soon. LeEco’s content be it movies, dramas, reality shows, music or sports – is central to our ecosystem which we will replicate in India.

Xiaomi may unveil custom ‘Rifle’ CPU cores on May 10

It looks like Xiaomi is getting ready to enter the mobile SoC segment. A Korean publication has revealed that the custom CPU cores will be called Rifle, with an official announcement slated for May 10, where the vendor will introduce its Mi Max phablet as well as the successor to the Mi Band.

Citing an anonymous source at Xiaomi’s component partner, KoreaTimes writes:

Xiaomi plans to release its in-house Rifle-dubbed mobile APUs at a company event, which has been set to take place May.

The report mentions that Xiaomi will develop the APUs using an architecture license from ARM, which is similar to what Qualcomm does with its Kryo cores. Xiaomi’s custom cores will initially be offered in its budget phones, but they will eventually expand to include the company’s tablets and TVs as well.

With Samsung and Huawei also making their own mobile SoCs in-house, it makes sense for Xiaomi to venture into the segment. There’s no mention as to whether the custom cores will be built on a 14nm manufacturing process like the latest offerings from Qualcomm and Samsung, or whether they’ll stick to the more standard 28nm node. We’ll know more on May 10.

You can now stream music from Amazon Prime to your Sonos speaker

Sonos has announced that support for Amazon Prime Music is now available to those with an Amazon Prime subscription. Previously, the feature was part of a beta test which allows you to connect the streaming service to your portable speaker and stream all the best tunes.

Prior to the inclusion of streaming support, it was only possible to play songs purchased through Amazon on a Sonos speaker. Should you already be shelling out $99 a year for Amazon Prime, you’ll now be able to stream your favorite songs to your connected speaker. All you need to do is fire up the Sonos app and head into the Amazon Prime Music area to get started.

Grab the Sonos app from the Play Store and let us know in the comments how you get on.

Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch plans leaked, luxury de Grisogono version confirmed

It might come as no surprise that Samsung is planning a new smartwatch for 2016 and even less so that it will likely be called the Samsung Gear S3. What is surprising however is that one of its partners seems to have let the cat out of the bag early doors.

Luxury jewellers de Grisogono has revealed that it is working with Samsung to co-create a high-end version of the Gear S3. The Korea Herald in Samsung’s homeland claims that it will be officially released later this year.

“We are currently collaborating with Samsung to develop its next-generation smartwatch,” a de Grisogono official told the newspaper.

It is believed that Samsung will launch the device and a standard, more affordable option at IFA 2016 in Berlin. That starts on 2 September.

READ: The amazingly eye-catching novelty watches of Baselworld 2016

The source also told the paper that de Grisogono was approached by Samsung for the collaboration as the Korean electronics firm wants to enter the ultra-luxury accessories market.

Apple already caters for wealthy customers with its Apple Watch Edition and Samsung wants a slice of that action.

Samsung

It already makes a diamond-studded version of the Gear S2 with de Grisogono, which was unveiled at Baselworld last month. Only 100 units are handcrafted each month and each watch costs $15,000. You can expect the special edition Samsung Gear S3 devices to be priced similarly.

Sonos now works with Amazon Prime Music properly

After several months of offering the service as part of a beta test period, Sonos now officially plays Amazon Prime Music content.

If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, the updated, full release application now gives you access to the entire collection of tracks, playlists and albums to stream through your Sonos system as you like.

Prime Music is Amazon’s answer to music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. It offers more than a million music tracks or albums to stream over the internet or download for offline listening, without you having to purchase them

Prime Music is also an additional benefit for Amazon Prime members, who already get unlimited access to thousands of TV shows and movies, free same and next-day delivery, and a host of other incentives for one annual fee.

So the £79 paid yearly by members now officially includes unlimited music streaming through Sonos.

READ: Can I get Amazon Prime Now one-hour deliveries in my area?

Sonos devices have changed in shape and size over the years, but the idea remains the same: they connect to your home Wi-Fi network in order to play music from a variety of local and cloud services, and subsequent devices are then connected together through a wireless mesh network.

This means individual Sonos components talk to each other on a proprietary peer-to-peer network. Only one of them needs to be linked with your home network, while the rest talk to each other directly. You can listen to music individually on each speaker or link them all up to play the same music at the same time.

They can be controlled by desktop and mobile applications. Sonos offers access to a number of music services that it has partnered with, including Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Napster, Last.fm, 7Digital, Rdio, Pandora, and now Amazon Prime Music. You need to have subscriptions with most if not all, and in many cases premium accounts.

Nokia is back, buying Withings to get into the health tracking wearable game

Just when you thought Nokia wasn’t going to be seen around much more, it’s announced it will buy wearable health tracking company Withings.

Nokia, most recently famous for the release of its Ozo professional grade virtual reality camera, is growing again. After selling its mobile division to Microsoft, Nokia Technologies has moved on from Lumia and is pushing growth, it would seem.

The planned purchase of French health tracking company Withings was announced but it won’t happen until later in the year. Products already on the market from the company include the analogue activity tracking Withings Activité watch plus the oxygen and movement tracking Withings Ox Pulse, to name a few.

Rajeev Suri, president & CEO of Nokia says: “With this acquisition, Nokia is strengthening its position in the Internet of Things in a way that leverages the power of our trusted brand.”

It’s not clear when Nokia made wearables will arrive, nor if they will be branded as such or still use the Withings name. Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies says: “Combining their award-winning products and talented people with the world-class expertise and innovation of Nokia Technologies uniquely positions us to lead the next wave of innovation in digital health.”

Withings is going to be bought for €170 million and the deal should go through early in the third quarter.

READ: Apple Watch 2 might pack cellular data connectivity, faster processor

Esports league bans porn site-sponsored team

Today I learned that porn site YouPorn has its own eSports team. Unfortunately for the site, I also learned that the Electronic Sports League (ESL) has decided that Team YP can’t compete in its eSport events, which include Street Fighter 5, Counter Strike and Starcraft. ESL told VentureBeat that “advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we’re working with have strict ‘no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography’ rules that we’ve contractually taken on board.”
“These aren’t new rules but ones that have been in our rulebooks for a long time. We have spoken to Team YP manager earlier this year, and in that conversation we’ve explained the situation and rules in detail and offered to look for potential alternatives in a bigger group. At the same time, we’re consulting with our legal teams about this.”

As Kotaku notes, eSports fans are mostly supportive of Team YP — and it’s not the only team with sketchy roots. G2A, which resells Steam keys, is a regular sponsor of ESL teams and events. And then there’s the gambling sites. It’s another bump in the road for a sport that’s still growing up — regardless of whether its viewers are old enough to watch pornography.

Via: Kotaku

Source: VentureBeat

Nokia will buy Withings for $191 million

Nokia has announced that it’s going to buy Withings for €170 million ($191 million). The French health and wearables company will become a division of Nokia Technologies, home to the Ozo Camera and N1 Tablet. It’s another step towards Nokia’s re-emergence as a consumer brand after Microsoft bought its phone division in 2013. In a statement, Nokia’s Ramzi Haidamus said that his company is now uniquely positioned “to lead the next wave of innovation in digital health.” Withings CEO Cedric Hutchings agrees, saying that he was “excited to join Nokia to help bring our vision of connected health to more people around the world.”

Given the high quality and ease-of-use that you find in most Withings products, $191 million seems like a total bargain. The purchase itself isn’t much of a surprise, since Nokia said that it wanted to branch out into health and wearables, as well as the internet of things market back in October. Withings kills both of those birds with one hefty stone, since in addition to connected scales and fitness tracking watches, Withings produces bed sensors and home monitoring cameras. The all-cash deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016, and we’re excited to see what the future holds for the new partnership.

Source: Nokia