The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- China Launches WTO Challenge to US Anti-Subsidy Tariffs (English article)
- Western Union (NYSE: WU) Signs ICBC (HKEx: 1398) for Account Money Transfer Services (Businesswire)
- LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) Reports Financial Results for Q2 of 2012 (PRNewswire)
- China Telecom (HKEx: 728), Unicom (HKEx: 762) Lower Price of iPhone 4, iPhone 4S (English article)
- ZTE (HKEx: 763) Adjusts 2012 Cellphone Growth Target to 30 Pct (Chinese article)
There are a couple of interesting reports out today from the smartphone space, highlighting the rapid rise of these feature-packed phones with the growing availability of affordable, high-quality models supplied by newcomers like ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), Huawei and Xiaomi. Those increasingly popular models, many selling for 2,000 yuan or less, could quickly pose a major challenge to high-end specialists like Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), amid early signs that Chinese mobile carriers are looking to cut back their generous subsidies for these more expensive models.
Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) big courtroom victory in its smartphone patent dispute with Samsung (Seoul: 005930) could soon send a chill through China’s up-and-coming tech sector, with the US giant likely to soon file a series of similar lawsuits against companies like Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063). This probable new twist in Apple’s ongoing quest for global smartphone dominance would not only hit the Chinese firms financially, but would also shine a spotlight on the uncomfortable fact that most still depend strongly on foreign technology for many of their higher-end products.
The colorful love-hate relationship between Beijing and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) never seems to stop evolving, flaring up this time with extensive coverage in state-run media over big China layoffs at Google’s recently acquired Motorola cellphone unit. In all fairness, Motorola’s decision to lay off 1,400 China employees is certainly big news by itself, with the China reductions accounting for more than a third of a recently announced round of 4,000 global job cuts by Motorola. But that said, I have little doubt that domestic media are being quietly encouraged to report extensively on the cuts by Beijing leaders who still feel stung by Google’s 2010 high-profile decision to withdraw from the China online search market.
A key US consultant has severed his ties with troubled telecoms equipment and cellphone maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), in a worrisome development that could presage more similar defections as people seek to distance themselves from the controversial company. ZTE and crosstown rival Huawei were already facing a difficult time in the US and Europe for several trade- and security-related reasons, but ZTE’s outlook grew dimmer still last month when word got out that the company was being investigated for allegedly selling banned US computer equipment to Iran to help that country set up a sophisticated telecoms surveillance system.
The sales and marketing people at smartphone wannabes like ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), Huawei and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) are probably green with envy over the surge in publicity surrounding the upcoming launch of the newest low-cost smartphone by up-and-comer Xiaomi. I’m not usually someone who gets too excited by new product launches, but I have to admit that even I am increasingly intrigued not only by this new phone, Xiaomi’s second following the launch of its first model last fall, but also by Xiaomi itself. The hype looks very similar to the kind of excitement that companies love but often have difficulty generating for their new product launches, with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as one of the few companies that can successfully generate such buzz.
