Europe Hears Call of Chinese Phones

Established 1961 15 Technology Thursday, June 7, 2018 From beep to boom: Europe hears call of Chinese phones OnePlus, Xiaomi comes as users avoid spending $1000 on phones PARIS: China’s smartphone makers have long been ing make the switch. “I had already bought more confined to their enormous local market but this is fast expensive phones before and didn’t see the need to changing, with a growing number of western European spend so much money,” Judy Grayland, a 36-year-old users opting for a relatively cheap but still sleek Xiaomi Redmi 4X owner told AFP. Chinese-made upgrade. Chinese top-range phones are “I am really happy with it. It works really well and it often around half the price of those made by US and looks nice,” said the Madrid-based translator and Korean rivals, with many devotees swearing by the mother of one. Hearing the call of European consumers, quality of their devices, insisting they are just as ele- Xiaomi recently opened its first flagship store in Paris, gant, functional and durable as any other model. and OnePlus’ phones have gone on sale in the cata- The aggressive expansion into western Europe- logues of French operator Bouygues Telecom. Both mainly Spain, Italy and France brands, complete with acces- for now-of Chinese firms sories, are widely available OnePlus and Xiaomi comes as online. users grow less willing to fork “We have to go to market out around $1,000 (850 They step by step. We’re already in euros) for a new device. At Spain and Italy and we’ve the same time the Chinese face stiff learned there for the other market reaches saturation European markets,” Xiaomi point, according to Roberta competition vice president Xiang Wang Cozza, an analyst at American said. “We’re fighting against research firm Gartner. people’s perceptions, because Companies such as they think that low prices OnePlus and Xiaomi “have to mean low quality, but it’s not look somewhere else. They can deliver good smart- (true),” Xiang said. phones and have the possibility to go on more mature OnePlus, whose 5T has drawn rave reviews likening it markets”, Cozza told AFP. They face stiff competition, to the iPhone X, is also taking a gradual approach. “We however, not just from Apple and Samsung, but also always start with one partner but there is no reason to HONG KONG: Tourists use smartphones and tablets to take photographs as the city’s business district from Chinese giant Huawei, the three of which hold extend it. We started in Finland with Elisa, 3 in Denmark, skyline is seen in the background in Hong Kong. —AFP around three quarters of the western European mar- O2 in the UK,” OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei said. ket share. Fierce battle Huawei to worry about-they must also fight off compe- top-quality product. The battle for buyers looking for a ‘Step by step’ BMI Research analyst Dexter Thillien says the firms’ tition from Sony, Motorola, Wiko, LG and the revamped phone in the 250-500 euro range is bound to be fierce But Xiaomi, which was founded in 2010, already arrival on the European market shows they want to up Nokia. for years to come. “There are similarities between occupies the fourth spot, according to global market their game. “The advantage of Europe is that con- Thillien says one pull factor that OnePlus and European (consumers) and those in emerging research firm IDC. OnePlus is number one in India, sumers there are a little bit wealthier” than in China, Xiaomi hold over the more established brands is their economies,” Thillien said, adding that the European where it holds more than half the market share, IDC BMI Research analyst Dexter Thillien said. OnePlus and production of premium phones, appealing to market is more open to change and new products than adds. And now, European users are growing more will- Xiaomi have more than just Samsung, Apple and Europeans looking for a bargain but who still want a the US. —AFP “Concerns about Huawei aren’t new,” US Senator Facebook: Chinese Mark Warner, vice chairman of the senate select committee on intelligence, said Tuesday. “I look for- ward to learning more about how Facebook ensured phone makers got that information about their users was not sent to Tesla reveals Chinese servers.” Contracts with phone makers access to data placed tight limits on what could be done with data, plans to build and “approved experiences” were reviewed by engi- SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has confirmed that a neers and managers before being deployed, accord- Chinese phone maker deemed a national security threat ing to the social network. cars in Shanghai by the US was among companies given access to data Facebook said it does not know of any privacy SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla on Tuesday revealed to on users. Huawei was able to access Facebook data to abuse by cellphone makers who years ago were able shareholders that it is working with officials in China get the leading social network’s applications to perform to gain access to personal data on users and their to build electric cars and battery packs in Shanghai. on smartphones, according to the California-based friends. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Tesla head of worldwide sales Robin Ren disclosed company. Chunying said she would not comment on coopera- the planned location of Tesla’s second “Gigafactory” “Facebook along with many other US tech compa- tion between companies because she was unaware while co-founder and chief Elon Musk fielded ques- nies have worked with them and other Chinese manu- of the details. “But I hope that the US can provide a This combination of ﬁle pictures created on June 5, 2018 shows tions at an annual shareholders meeting. “We are facturers to integrate their services onto these fair, transparent, open and friendly environment for a Facebook logo on a screen ahead of a press conference to incredibly excited to build the first Gigafactory out- phones,” Facebook mobile partnerships leader the investments and business activities of Chinese announce the launch of it’s latest product “Workplace”, in cen- side the US in China, specifically it is going to be in Francisco Varela said in a statement on Tuesday. companies,” Hua told a regular press briefing in tral London, on October 10, 2016 and the logo of Chinese elec- Shanghai,” Ren said. “Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make Beijing yesterday. tronics ﬁrm Huawei during a presentation of the new Huawei He added that discussions with government offi- clear that all the information from these integrations Mate 9 high-end-phablet at the Huawei Global Product Launch in cials in China have been “really great” and that more with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei’s Done with deals Munich, southern Germany, on November 3, 2016. —AFP details about the Shanghai plant would be shared servers.” Before now-ubiquitous apps standardized Facebook is winding up the interface arrangements “soon.” For Tesla to make affordable vehicles, “it is the social media experience on smartphones, some 60 with device makers as the company’s smartphone apps in every country we operate,” and that “no government going to be important to localize production to at device makers like Amazon, Apple, Blackberry, HTC, now dominate the service. The integration partnership has ever asked us to compromise the security or least a continent level,” Musk said. Tesla hoped to have pinpointed a spot for a Gigafactory in Europe Microsoft and Samsung worked with Facebook to with Huawei will terminate by the end of this week, integrity of any of our networks or devices.” by the end of this year, according to its chief, who adapt interfaces for the Facebook website to their according to the social network. The social network The social network came under attack early this said it “disagreed” with the conclusions of a New York added that the company ultimately expects to have 10 own phones, the company said. year over British political consultant Cambridge to 12 such plants worldwide. Times report that found that the device makers could Facebook, which has been blocked in China since Analytica’s harvesting of personal data on 87 million Gigafactories will produce battery packs and cars 2009, also had data-access deals with Chinese compa- access information on Facebook users’ friends without Facebook users and their friends. Cambridge Analytica on site, according to Musk. Tesla’s gigafactory in the nies Lenovo, OPPO and TCL, according to Varela. their explicit consent. obtained the data without Facebook’s permission and US state of Nevada makes batteries for the compa- “Facebook’s integrations with Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO But the report raised concerns that massive data- used it to help the election campaign of US President ny’s cars, which are built in northern California. Tesla and TCL were controlled from the get-go,” Varela said. bases on users and their friends-including personal Donald Trump. In April, Facebook chief executive Mark last month Musk told employees the electric carmaker Huawei has long disputed any links to the Chinese gov- data and photographs-could be in the hands of device Zuckerberg apologized in Congress over the is being reorganized to speed up production of ernment, noting that its infrastructure and computing makers. Huawei maintains that its products “meet the Cambridge Analytica fiasco, amid rising calls for more Model 3 vehicles-a key to profitability at the fast- products are used in 170 countries. highest standards of security, privacy and engineering regulation of the company. —AFP growing firm. “To ensure that Tesla is well prepared for the future, we have been undertaking a thorough reorganization of our company,” the memo obtained Foxconn imagines life by AFP said.

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