Samsung&#039;s Galaxy A10 was the top-selling Android phone in Q3 2019 &#8211; Android Central

Get two Samsung Galaxy S10 for the price of one!

Counterpoint Research’s latest Market Pulse report has revealed that the best-selling Android smartphone during the third quarter of the year was the Samsung Galaxy A10. The entry-level A series smartphone managed to capture 2.6% of the global market share during the July-September period.

Samsung actually had two more Galaxy A series phones in the top 10 list: Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A20. The mid-range Galaxy A50 was actually the second most popular Android smartphone during Q3 2019, with 1.9% market share. Surprisingly, however, no flagship Galaxy smartphone made it to the top 10 list.

Chinese smartphone maker OPPO, like Samsung, had three A series devices in the top 10 list – OPPO A9, OPPO A5, and OPPO A5s. While Xiaomi’s Redmi 7A was the ninth most popular smartphone during the quarter, Huawei’s flagship P30 Pro grabbed the tenth spot. Since Huawei’s latest phones do not come with Google Mobile Services, it looks unlikely that any phone from the company will figure in the top ten list during the fourth quarter.

However, the top-selling smartphone globally wasn’t an Android smartphone. Unsurprisingly, Apple’s iPhone XR held on to its title of the best-selling phone globally even in Q3 2019, with a market share of 3%. In fact, Counterpoint Research claims the iPhone XR contributed to over one-quarter of the Cupertino-based company’s total sales during the quarter.

Tech

Apple supply chain braces for disruption from coronavirus – BNNBloomberg.ca

Published

16 mins ago

January 28, 2020

Apple Inc.’s China-centric manufacturing base is at risk of disruption after the Lunar New Year holiday as the company’s partners confront the coronavirus outbreak that has gripped the country and caused more than 100 deaths.

Virtually all of the world’s iPhones are made in China, primarily by Foxconn’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. at its so-called iPhone City in Zhengzhou and by Pegatron Corp. at an assembly site near Shanghai. Each of those locations is more than 500 kilometers away from Wuhan in central China, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, but that distance doesn’t immunize them from its effects.

“I can’t imagine a scenario where the supply chain isn’t disrupted,” said veteran industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. “If there’s one major hiccup in the raw materials, fabrication, assembly, test, and shipping, it will be a disruption.”

Apple has been increasing production to meet higher-than-anticipated iPhone demand, Bloomberg News reported last week. The company typically launches its new high-end iPhones around September, so the virus is unlikely to have meaningful impact on those plans, however the company is also preparing to begin mass production of a new low-cost iPhone in February, which is more at risk.

Apple has roughly 10,000 direct employees in China, across its retail and corporate entities. Its supply chain also has a few million workers manufacturing products like the iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. Many of those employees have been home the past few days for the holiday, and the company hasn’t said if it is asking them to stay home for longer to prevent the virus spreading. Chinese authorities have imposed severe travel restrictions and taken the drastic step of quarantining the entire city of Wuhan, a population of more than 11 million.

“Supply chain disruption is a worry if employees across Foxconn and other component manufacturing hubs in China are restricted,” said analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities Inc. “If the China outbreak becomes more spread it could negatively impact the supply chain which would be a major investor worry.”

An Apple spokeswoman declined a request for comment.

Foxconn said it is monitoring the situation in China and following all recommended health practices. It declined to comment on production in specific locations but said, “We can confirm that we have measures in place to ensure that we can continue to meet all global manufacturing obligations.”

Confirmed cases of the coronavirus are rising in Henan province — home to Zhengzhou facility — which may lead Hon Hai or the government to close factories to prevent further contamination, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman wrote. The province accounted for a quarter of China’s smartphone exports last year, while China’s exports make up 27% of global smartphone sales, he said, citing government and IDC data. Foxconn is estimated to account for more than 60% of Henan’s total trade.

The Cupertino, California-based company prepares for extreme scenarios such as the coronavirus by mandating that major components be dual-sourced — both in terms of vendors and geography — and a major immediate impact to its production plans is unlikely for now, according to a person familiar with its operations. Even so, the vast majority of its assembly work is done in China, and so a shortage of workers for assembly lines will have a direct impact on shipment numbers.

Apple put the redundancy policy in place after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and led to component constraints for the iPad 2 that the company launched that year.

While Apple doesn’t have any stores in Wuhan, it does have dozens of retail locations across the Chinese mainland. The company hasn’t announced any closures yet, however it has shortened the opening hours of several stores in the country through Feb. 7, according to a review of its retail website. That shift could be due to the Chinese government extending the lunar holiday as a means to control the virus.

Along with its local workforce, Apple also relies on many of its U.S. staff going back and forth across the Pacific Ocean, with United Airlines Inc. last year revealing the company was spending US$35 million per year flying employees between San Francisco and Shanghai alone. That included 50 daily business-class seats, according to the airline. How the virus outbreak may affect the research and development efforts that those trips facilitate has yet to be established.

Investors and analysts will be looking to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to make comments on the virus and its impact on Apple during Tuesday’s conference call to discuss the latest quarterly financial results. Cook tweeted over the weekend that Apple “will be donating to groups on the ground helping support all of those affected” by the virus.

Tech

EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks set for longest losing streak in four months as China virus spreads – Reuters Africa

Published

1 hour ago

January 28, 2020

* EM stocks index set for fourth straight day of declines

* China coronavirus death toll passes 100

* Investors anxious about economic fallout from outbreak

By Shreyashi Sanyal

Jan 28 (Reuters) – Emerging market equities declined for a fourth straight session on Tuesday, set for their longest losing streak in four months, on rising worries about the economic impact from a virus outbreak in China as the death toll rose.

MSCI’s index for emerging market equities fell 0.7%, tracking stock market losses across Asia.

The coronavirus spreading across China claimed its first victim in Beijing, as the death toll rose to 106. A wave of risk aversion swept over global markets as investors worried about the potential impact of the outbreak on the world’s second-biggest economy.

“We are in the acute phase of the crisis, which means everyday there are reports of new contagions, new countries reporting cases… so the market will react to that and continue to adjust itself in a bearish direction,” said Cristian Maggio, head of emerging markets strategy at TD Securities in London.

“Now, is this going to be the reality by the end of the crisis? Probably not. The market is over reacting because it is still too early to determine the economic impact.”

Emerging market assets had received a boost on hopes of a pickup in economic growth after the United States and China reached an initial trade agreement, but analysts said an unexpected growth shock could leave them vulnerable to a renewed downturn.

In South Africa, beleaguered power utility Eskom said installing all the technology needed to meet stricter emissions rules coming into force in April could take the company two decades.

State-owned Eskom, mired in financial crisis and struggling to meet demand, is the top polluter in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

The South African rand fell against the dollar, reversing an earlier rise, as a weak domestic outlook continued to weigh on sentiment.

South African stocks fell 0.4%, while Russian stocks lost 0.3%.

Russia’s rouble strengthened slightly, in line with steadying oil prices.

For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2020, see tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2020, see tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets

For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see

For TURKISH market report, see

For RUSSIAN market report, see (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Tech

Coronavirus outbreak may disrupt Apple's iPhone production ramp up plans-Nikkei – Ottawa Citizen

Published

3 hours ago

January 28, 2020

Apple Inc’s plan to ramp up iPhone production by 10% in the first half of this year may hit a roadblock as the coronavirus outbreak spreads across China, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Tuesday.

The company has asked its suppliers, many of whom have manufacturing centers in China, to make up to 80 million iPhones in the first half of 2020, the Nikkei reported, citing people familiar with the company’s plans. (https://s.nikkei.com/2O6wXuq)

Apple has booked orders for up to 65 million of its older iPhones and up to 15 million units of a new cut-price model that it plans to unveil in March, according to the report.

However, the mass production which is due to start in the third week of February might be delayed due to the virus outbreak, the Nikkei reported.

The coronavirus outbreak has so far killed more than 100 people and infected over 4,500 in China, stranded tens of millions during the Lunar New Year holiday and rattled global markets.

Apple’s shares rose about 86% in 2019, outperforming a 29% rise in the S&P 500 index. The stock closed down nearly 3% at $308.95 on Monday as coronavirus fears dragged down high-flying U.S. chip and technology stocks.

Cupertino, California-based Apple, which raked in more than $142 billion in iPhone sales in fiscal 2019, has introduced lower priced smartphone variants to woo budget conscious shoppers and check declining sales of its biggest product category.

Last October, Nikkei reported that Apple asked its suppliers to increase production of iPhone 11 models by up to 8 million units, or about 10%, hinting that demand for the recently launched versions of its flagship phone was picking up.

The iPhone maker is set to report its first-quarter earnings after markets close on Tuesday.

Apple did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Roshan Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)