Qualcomm's Under Tech Dangers Again

The chipmaker's new tech mix is fundamentally incompatible, says Google engineer

According to Google engineer, Benson Leung, all the devices which support Qualcomm Inc.’s Quick Charge technology and USB-C have reported to have significant flaws. In simpler terms, it means that a same device cannot support both standards.

The chipmaker’s Quick Charge technology has been shipped on a large number of devices including, but not limited to, LG G5, HTC 10, and Samsung Galaxy S7. The new technology claims that it can support USB 3.1 Gen 1 transfer speeds in addition to USB-C, which, according to the claims made by the company, means that the user can avail both top-end directionless cable and USB 3.1 transfer rates. However, the findings of Google’s engineer have raised doubts over the performance of the technology.

In the simpler term the problem which the technology has is that even though it’s capable of charging a phone at up to 18W, it however takes data lines on the USB-C device to charge it. In other words, USB-C specs don’t allow the variable voltage tricks which are supported by QC 3.0 and others in order to top up the battery quickly. Therefore, it is technically impossible to fast charge the device and simultaneously communicate with it –the device can still be conveniently charged when attached to PC.

So does this mean that the devices like LG G5 or HTC 10 are prone to catching fire after heating up? According to Qualcomm this isn’t the case and that the company has received no complaints regarding the matter.

Qualcomm had earlier faced similar issues with its Snapdragon’s previous processor which heated up the devices in which it was installed and that was the reason why the South Korean tech giant, Samsung, withdrew Qualcomm’s supply of the mobile chip and preferred using their in-home manufactured chips. The chipmaker’s stock had plunged down a lot after the proposed flaw and only in the current year the stock slightly gained its momentum back. If the reported issue is concerning then the company’s stock will likely repeat the last year’s history. Although the company has been denying for any potential problems, the tech expert –Google engineer –is skeptical about the unusual mix of two technologies.

The exact danger which the technology mix possesses is still unknown. Leung has not provided the exact details except for indicating that this mix is not compatible. For the current users, it will be safe to use the compatible and reliable charging devices to safe the devices for any potential damage.

The reported news haven’t affected the chipmaker’s stock as yet. At the market which closed on Monday, Qualcomm stock stood at a price of $52.43.

New Biography By Duncan Clark For Alibaba

Duncan Clark wrote biography about Jack Ma and how he built a online retail empire known as Alibaba

Alibaba Group Holding has become the online retailing giant and the largest retailer in the e-commerce industry. The Internet and PC revolution experienced by the world during the late 20th century took the world by a storm. However, the key players in this era were distinctly American such as Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Apple and Google. Considering the paradigms of the 21st century, it is not possible to think about an Internet revolution that has its roots in China. China has now become the center of everything in the world.

Alibaba Group is a growing Chinese digital marketplace and in recent times, it has become bigger and larger than the US retailer ‘Amazon’. Its e-commerce business is one thing but the newly formed Alipay owned and operated by Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial is accountable for one third of the $2.5 trillion global online payments market. Overall, it has become an integral part of China’s ascension as an economic power globally.

In order to make something of yourself, you have to work for it. This is exactly what the founder and chairman of the company Jack Ma did all his life. He is not a CEO from the nerdy groups who have amazing programming skills or are extra genius. Jack Ma was not like them and worked hard to build a company as big as Alibaba. He grew up in a mediocre family started a tiny translation business that was focused on Chinese companies so that he makes a name and living. Ma did well under Deng Xiaoping and learnt how to do business with the West. He then visited the United States in 90s where he got to know about the technological progress hence decided that listing the Chinese companies online would be beneficial.

During that time, the internet just came in hence it was hard for the web pioneers in the US to persuade investors as well as consumers to get started with e-commerce businesses. And Ma wanted to do the same and faced numerous challenges for his startup. China was not advanced then and majority parts did not have internet. Still he managed to get a few investors on board to create web services. The Chinese government also then decided to bring in the internet technology in 90s and this was when the Chinese businesses gained attention of foreign investors. Ma’s previous business known as China Pages received a good investment from a Japanese Billionaire named Masayosha Son. That money became the founding pillar of what we know today as Alibaba.

Since then, Jack Ma and his company have not stopped to grow and prosper. It went public two years ago and raised a massive $25 billion in what it is said to be the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the history. Alibaba is a house that Jack Ma has built. It currently dominates the domestic market and it is exploring opportunities to expand in the international markets. 

Apple Longer Update Cycles Slowing Down Sales

The consumers of iPhones do not immediately let go of their outdated iPhones for a less upgraded one

The brokerage firm, BTIG, disclosed some concerning aspects of the tech giant, Apple Inc. after which the stock underwent a slight fall. The firm believes that the smartphone customers are not ready to surrender their handsets after small intervals of usage.

On Wednesday, the brokerage firm slashed down its iPhone sales estimation for the fiscal years 2016 and 2017 due to the “longer upgrade cycles.” This initiative also had collateral impact on the earnings projections for the current and the succeeding year and the brokerage lower its earning estimation while simultaneously bringing the stock’s price target down from $141 to $130. The price target still is almost 19% beyond the current trading of $109.22.

It is an open secret that the tech giant, for the first time in history, is expecting a sales decline in the current fiscal year. The company has been quite vocal about it but it’s not the only concern –the tech giant’s impending structural change is what has led analysts to lower down their estimations. The structure change is the main deterrent in the pace of upgrades.

In a note to clients, BTIG’s Walter Piecyk cited that for almost all smartphones the upgrade rates dropped in the fourth quarter and are following the same suit in the March quarter. In order to form an opinion on the upgrade rates, Mr. Piecyk compiled the data of the four big carriers including Sprint, T-Mobile US, Verizon Communications, and AT&T.

The analyst believes that such decline might be triggered by likely slowdown at the head of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 launch in March and the progression of sales of the iPhone in Apple stores which is likely to have been ignored by the operators and not factored into their upgrade rates. However, Mr. Piecyk further added, that even then it is definite that the length of the phone replacement cycle in the U.S. is broadening.

For Apple, particularly, consumers have put the onus of slowing sales and lengthening period of upgrades on the “S” cycles. The “S” cycles generally do not have anything more to offer in terms of upgrades and the optimization or the features upgrade come after the cycle changes numbers. In comparison to previous cycles, this year decline had been alarmingly steeper, according to Mr. Piecyk.

The analyst reduced almost 10 million units from both of its iPhone sales estimations for 2016 and 2017. He further projected that in the current fiscal year the techy titan is likely to sell around 210 million of iPhone units while he predicted just a 5% increase in the fiscal 2017 and project the sales of iPhones unit to be around 220 million.

With respect to earnings per share, the brokerage firm’s analyst has predicted EPS of $8.87 for the current fiscal year, 2016, and an EPS of $9.57 for the year 2017. The projections have been respectively brought down by 54 cents and 53 cents. Additionally, according to the analysts’ estimates, carried out by FactSet, the tech titan projected EPS for 2016 and 2017 lays at $8.91 and $9.67 respectively.

Although the data rendered by the phone carriers hints that the upgrade cycle is met with the slight extension however it will still take several quarters and the launch of the next iPhone in order to coherently determine whether the consumers prompting let go of their outdated handsets or not.  

Should BlackBerry Transition To Software Business?

The hardware business of the company has significantly collapsed and the firm should take measures to sustain the company's existence

Shares of BlackBerry faltered after the company announced its earnings last week. The company reported loss, which was slightly better than what analysts had previously expected. However, it substantially shied away from the projected sales devices.

There was a time when BlackBerry handsets enjoyed strong monopoly among the enterprise users. However, after Android-powered devices and Apple iPhone improved their apps for enterprise and strengthened their overall security, the fine line between professional and personal devices narrowed which consequently led Android and iOS to step into the enterprise market. The new arrivals negatively influenced BlackBerry’s shares and they declined to 0.2% from 20% between 2009 and 2015 fourth quarters.

In late 2013, when the current CEO John Chen took the charge of the smartphone maker he immediately realized that a prompt shift of business is pivotal for the company’s survival. Under the leadership of the new CEO, the Waterloo, Ontario based firm introduced cheaper devices, slashed down the annual number of the BB devices released, and at the end of 2015 brought in the strategic change of launching the first ever Android operated smartphone, dubbed as PRIV.

In the upcoming future, the company is likely to release the cheaper Android handsets having the price tag of $350 however the decision has been met with a lot of doubts and skepticism relating to the viability of the device in an already saturated market of powerful and cheap Android devices.

Through the last quarter’s conference call, the CEO opined that in order to meet the “break even” point, the Canadian firm ought to sell around three million handsets at an average price of $300 in the fiscal year 2017 – which has been commenced on March 1. I

n financial terms, it can be said that the company has to increase the smartphone revenue to $900 million by next year by simultaneously growing the revenue of $870 million in the current fiscal year. This initiative is apparently hard to achieve however, it might allow the company to grow its software business.

There are four chief elements which are likely to trigger the growth of the company’s software business: BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) – which controls the handsets across various platforms; BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) – a popular and secured messaging app majorly popular among enterprise users; Good Technology –a cellphone management vendor it had acquired last year for an amount of $425 million; and QNX – an operating system which controls most of the connected cars in the world.

During the last quarter, the smartphone maker released a tracking platform for the devices relating to Internet of Things in addition to five “secure enterprise mobility management suites” which conveniently integrate Good Technologies, a cybersecurity consulting service that assists the consumer in risk mitigation and assessment, and BlackBerry.

Through these services the BlackBerry strengthened its unshakable position in enterprise security and emerged from a worn out smartphone producer to a provider of such software which assist companies in controlling the Android, BB10, Windows, and iOS devices. Through these services, the company will be able to generate higher revenue for the smartphone maker. 

Netflix Informed Customers About The Price Hike In 2014

Netflix came in front to refute the claims of its customers by saying that the announcement of price hike was already made in 2014. The company reminded again in January in a note to its shareholders

Last week the news started to emerge that the US streaming business Netflix Inc. is all set for a price hike once again for its standard streaming plan. Previously, the streaming giant raised prices back in May 2014 where new customers were asked to pay $9.99 for standard two screen at a time plan where as the existing customers were exempted from paying the new increase prices. For the existing customers, those were the golden times which are now about to end. And it seems as the customers are not happy with the change Netflix is coming.

A couple of days ago it was believed that the streaming giant has come up with this decision all of a sudden which means that the streaming subscribers had no idea what they will be facing in the coming month. Analysts said that the price hike should not concern the viewers as the demand for Netflix’s original programming is soaring. A report published by JP Morgan Chase & Co. showed that 80 percent of the affected subscribers are not aware of the price hike.

Analysts stated that 17 million customers which are accountable to 37 percent of the total customer base of the United States will face price hike. And they believe that the streaming service provider should have informed before officially announcing this. However Netflix refute this and said it disclosed about the $2 price hike back in 2014. The company believes that the subscribers did not pay attention when it made the announcement. Many customers criticized the US streaming business on Twitter. The users said:

“Hey @netflix any plan on giving us more content with your price hike? It's pretty garbage at the moment.”

“Nope, sorry netflix, I haven't gotten a 25% raise in the last two years, so I won't be staying on for the price increase. Later.”

On the other hand, one customer was not much concerned about the price hike but expressed disappointment on not receiving any mail regarding this change but reading it on a news site. But it is the other way round. Netflix did inform the subscribers 2 years ago and reminded the shareholders once again in a letter sent to them in January. The company said, “In Q2 and Q3, we'll be releasing a substantial number of our US members from price grandfathering on the HD plan and they will have the option of continuing at $7.99 but now on the SD plan, or continuing on HD at $9.99 a month.”

The new price for the standard plan would become effective from next month which it previously announced in 2014 for the new customers who had to pay $8.99 instead of $7.99. At that time, Netflix reprieved the existing customers from paying the increased prices however mentioned that those will have to pay more after two years.

The spokeswoman of the company said in an interview with CNBC, “Later this month, members in the UK will begin to be un-grandfathered. Beginning [in] May, the price update is rolling out elsewhere based on member billing periods. Impacted members will be clearly notified by email and within the service, so that they have time to decide which plan/price point works best for them.”

Facebook Launches New Feature For Disabled Users

No one can say now that Facebook doesn't care about its users; it recently launched a new feature for impaired users.

On April 5, 2016 Facebook Inc. announced that it launched its latest feature, the automatic alternative text (AAT). This new feature can create and come up with simple captions that are put under photos on the social media website. This can be considered as yet another milestone achieved by the social media network as it offers additional support to those Facebook users who use screen readers on the website.  

With the help of this latest software that has been used in AAT, users will be able to hear audible descriptions that have been made under photos (or captions) as the software will read those descriptions out loud. This will be an opportunity for visually impaired users as they will be able to hear the comments and captions made by their friends on the social media network. Facebook experience for such users will just be enhanced with the addition of this latest feature.

Previously, there was an option of audible description however it would only read out the name of the person, or mention that a photo has been posted by someone or read out the text out loud if it would appear on the user’s News Feed. That has changed with the introduction on AAT, as with the help of artificial intelligence, the users with such disabilities will be able to better communicate with their friends on the social media platform.

The main function performed by the artificial intelligence assistance is that it reads the text on the photos and comes up with catchy and simple self-made phrases for it. This object recognition feature on Facebook can detect a number of objects on the site vehicles including motorcycles, cars, buses and boats, natural things such as mountains, suns, waves etc, food objects that the AI can detect include ice cream, sushi etc.

Presently, the service has been activated for the English version of Facebook on the iOs; these users can simply activate their AAT to enjoy the new experience, they don’t have to be physically disabled to use the feature, anyone can avail this new feature on the social platform. Furthermore, this feature can point out stuff on the website which is not understood by users, for instance if a person does not understand what’s wrong or funny about a certain picture, the AI will help them identify it; it will simply say it out loud.

This push into the specific technology emphasizes on how Facebook is a philanthropic company as with the latest feature it is using technology to help disabled people. Furthermore, the Free Basic Program by the company was another effort it was making to help people in the world by providing free internet to people in rural areas who do not have access to the internet, with the help of airborne Aquila Drone.

In addition to that, this move also shows how easily the company has taken up and used artificial intelligence and integrated it into its system. It has quite rapidly adopted and progressed in the specific tech category.

Apple Inc. Has a New Expansion Strategy For the Indian Market

The technology organization plan to import its old iPhone to India as most of the customers prefer to buy phones under $150;  however the company has been targeted with increased criticism over the plan.

Apple Inc. has become the first ever smartphone maker that can legally export used phone in India for direct sales. The ugly truth currently is that the world’s largest market which is the smartphone market is coming to a saturation point; this point is hitting many high-end smartphone makers in the industry especially Apple Inc. 2015 was the second year in which the technology giant faced its declining sales.

In an attempt to tackle this issue of declining iPhone sales, the Silicon Valley giant is trying to develop newer marker especially in India, as due to regulations and import duties, the price of a high-end device hits the roof. However, to gain back its faith in the market the tech organization is implementing another strategy of selling old and refurbished smartphones. Many believe that even before the company comes around to implementing this strategy it will fail, as it has been opposed by the government and regulatory authorities in the country as well as iPhone maker’s rivals in the industry, some of which include Samsung, Micromax and Intex.  

Companies that make mid-range and low-range smartphones is the primary reason as to why the idea has come across resistance; they are mainly concerned that if Apple is allowed to go forward with this it will face increased competition in the specific smartphone category. Many people have stated that if the tech giant starts importing these phones to India, they will require a change of battery and display screen however people have pointed out that discarding these components could release toxic materials in to the already polluted Indian environment.

Since India has been one of the fastest growing markets in the smartphone business; it is highly unlikely that Apple would pull out its expansion plans so easily. Apple Inc. had a 76% iPhone sales growth in the region during the previous year; despite of the fact that most of these sales from its discounted iPhone 5 series. IPhone customers in the region prefer phones that are under $150 or less and hardly ever prefer phones that are above $600 at which the latest iPhones are usually priced at.

The recent iPhone SE that has been launched has been given a lower price tag however despite of that it is likely not going to impress the Indian customer; as at a price of 35,000 rupees it does not appeal to the Indian crowd since they would opt to buy an iPhone 6s which is just $75 more than that price.

However, if other rival manufacturers try to place the environment-centric argument game, they might just lose this battle as the tech company follows strict rules when it comes to recycling its old iPhones. The fact that the tech giant follows strict rules on recycling can soften some criticism that has been brought up on the topic of environment. Apple has an intelligent recycling robot by the name of Liam that recycles 85% of its products that were manufactured over seven years ago. 

Microsoft Corporation Artificial Intelligence Chatbot goes Haywire on the Internet

The technology giant has addressed this issue of Al chatbat and apologized publicly for its misconduct.

Microsoft’s artificial intelligence powered chatbot, Tay caused some trouble for the technology company earlier last week. The specific bot apparently messages like a teenage girl and last week it posted some offensive content that it learnt from the users. The chatbot Tay turned into a hate-speech propagating, ‘Hitler-sympathizing’ messaging robot instead which seemed offensive to many.

Users exploited the glitch in the system and took advantage of it which in turn portrayed the chatbot as a hate-speech initiator. Tay made this mistake on the micro-blogging website Twitter, Inc. In a blog post, the technology organization released a statement regarding this misconduct on Tay’s part.

Peter Lee, the corporate vice president at Microsoft Corporation, was the author of the specific post in which he expressed that the management of the tech giant was deeply sorry for the ‘unintended offensive and hurtful’ tweets that were made by its AI powered chatbot. Furthermore, he added that the chatbot’s tweet, in any way, did not represent the technology business and neither did it portrays what the company stands for. In addition to that, he even stated that, the conduct by Tay is not how the company designed it.

The chatbot was officially given permission to interact with users online on Wednesday, it’s built to become smarter by interacting with the millennial users and how they talk and interact with each other online. It has the ability to copy how the users type, their ideas and how they conduct speech. However, this ability to learn from the users led the bot to show a slate of anti-Semitic and hateful comments on the social media website; in addition to that other social media networks were involved in this as well including KiK, Snapchat as well as GroupMe.

In counter the reaction that the tweets created on the Internet, the technology giant deleted the tweets and closed down Tay on Thursday. The company has stated that it will be back on only when the engineers have fixed this problem and when they figure out how to avoid such incidents in the future. The engineer’s first task will be to prevent the bot from getting influenced by the users online so that it doesn’t misrepresent the missions and values of the company.

The Chief corporate VP also stated that this problem occurred despite of the engineers testing the artificial intelligent bot in various scenarios. This problem only surfaced after they made the service live on the internet. He added that even though the company tested it with many types of abuses on the system, it had this issue. 

Intel Corporation Leaves Behind its 'Tick-Tock' Approach

The technology giant is moving towards a new three-step development strategy and moving away from its previous, more successful Tick-Tick Strategy.

Intel Corporation’s ‘Tick-Tock’ strategy has dominated the market for over a decade now despite the fact that during this time period, the technology giant has worked on a number of different chip development methodologies. However, recently the chip maker has decided to say farewell to its ‘tick-tock’ strategy that has always seemed to work for it.

The era of relying on the ‘Tick-tock’ strategy is officially over as the technology organization is moving towards a three step development process which is called Process Architecture Optimization (PAO). This latest shift by the company didn’t come as a surprise to many since last year the company had stated that it was having issues with its 10-nanometer technology because of which it failed to go into production which it had planned to do so initially by the end of the year.

The Tick-Tock strategy basically referred to nodes, in which the new process nodes were known as the ‘ticks’ while the new architectures that were built on these process nodes were known as ‘tocks’. However, in its 10-K filing, the company declared that strategy officially dead. Furthermore, the filing also stated some of company’s future plans which included the introduction of new product families by the chip manufacturing organization.

In the filing, the company mentioned the introduction of ‘Kaby Lake’ which will be the third 14 nanometer product and is expected to have key performance enhancements in comparison to the 6^th generation Intel Core Processor. In addition to that, they are also working on their next-generation process technology which will be a 10 nanometer manufacturing process technology.

Intel Corporation is quite optimistic about its latest development strategy – however it is still too soon to say whether this new strategy will be impactful and will be able to generate the kind of response the company is hoping for it. Furthermore, we are yet to find out if it will be as successful as the initial Tick-Tock Strategy.

On March 21, Intel Stock witnessed a decline of 2% in the pre-market trading as Bernstein downgraded the company’s stock to Underperform from an initial rating of Market Perform. Stacy Rasgon, analyst at Bernstein believes that since the tech organization has not shared its quarter’s results as yet, it might not be ‘out of the woods’ as yet. Furthermore, the analyst also predicts that since the company has failed to live up to its guidance for the first quarter of the current fiscal year and hence has not yet shared anything in the pre-announcement.

The tech giant is supposed to report its financial earnings for the three month period on March 31. The analysts at the Street are hoping for the company to report profit of 50 cents per share and have estimated revenue of $13.95 million.

FedEx Corporation Positive Guidance For Fiscal Year 2016

The package delivery organization is quite optimistic about the future as it reported better than expected earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015.

After reviewing FedEx Corporation’s third quarter financial results on March 21, Argus upgraded the earnings per share (EPS) estimate for company’s fiscal year 2016. From an initial EPS estimate of $10.75, it got excited and upgraded it to $10.83 along with a Buy rating on the stock of the delivery company with a price target of $180.

The courier service organization announced its third quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings on March 16, 2015. In these recent earnings report, the company disclosed revenue earned through sales of $12.654 billion outperforming the analyst’s estimate by 2.37% which suggested the revenue generation to be at $12.361 billion. The net income reported by the company during the quarter was $691 million. It managed to outperform the analyst’s consensus in that respect too by 5.51% since they had estimated the delivery giant to report $654.938 million.

The chairman, president and CEO of the package delivery organization, Frederick W. Smith stated that the company’s financial performance is a reflection of the increase in demand for the business’s broad portfolio due to which we can witness an increase in revenue and adjusted profit of the corporation. He went on by appreciating the efforts of the company’s team members during the peak season who managed to give great service despite of the strong shipping demands which was driven by the growth in e-commerce.

The better-than-expected earnings were reported by the company owed to the impact made by the currency exchange rates along with the decline in fuel prices. Additionally, the company itself worked on better management initiatives. Other factors that contributed to the increase in earnings include the 7.3 million shares repurchase.

As for the guidance for fiscal year 2016, the delivery business decided to increase its adjusted earnings per share to in a range of $10.7 and $10.9 which was initially in the range of $10.4 to $10.9. Furthermore, the forecast for capital expenditure was also increased by almost $0.2 billion to $4.8 billion however it had previously announced capital expenditure on December 16 of $4.6 billion.

In contrast to that the chief financial officer Alan B. Graf. Jr. stated that for fiscal year 2016, the adjusted earnings per share are to be increased by 20% to 22% as the company had started to benefit from its profit improvement program. He added that this positively is to reflect in the upcoming 2017 fiscal year as well since the company is expecting solid growth in its cash flow and earnings.

FedEx Corporation stock is being traded in the market for a share price of $164.63 up by 0.56% with earnings per share of $4.07. Furthermore, the market capitalization of the delivery company is at $44.84 billion.