Xiaomi wants to be number one! Photo: Xiaomi
If there’s one thing Xiaomi can’t be accused of, it’s having a lack of ambition.
Not content with having come out of nowhere to become the world’s third-biggest smartphone maker, the CEO of the Chinese tech company, Lei Jun, has announced that he next plans for his company to become the number one smartphone vendor globally within the next 10 years.
Tim Cook introduces Apple Pay. Wait, that’s Samsung Pay. Photo: BusinessKorea
Samsung is rightfully envious of Apple’s mobile payment service Apple Pay, which has swept the mobile payments world since being introduced at the end of 2014. With that in mind, it’s introduced its own “Samsung Pay” rival service, which it hopes will sway customers back in the South Korea tech giant’s direction.
But with Apple having both a lead-time advantage and the “halo effect” of a beloved brand behind it, Samsung’s trying to appeal to something a bit more base when it comes to swaying people in favor of its mobile payment service: cold, hard cash.
According to new reports coming out of Korea, the company has decided not to collect fees on Samsung Pay, rather than the 0.0015 percent demanded by other mobile payment services. Samsung allegedly won’t charge partnered credit card companies either, or from service providers for online payments.
You might want to move onto the “next” phone after the Galaxy S6. Photo: Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy S6 may borrow its physical form factor, software design, and, yes, even EarPods from the iPhone 6, but there’s one thing Samsung forgot to pilfer: quality.
According to new reports coming out of Asia, the newly-unveiled Samsung Galaxy S6 and SGS6 edge handsets both suffer from a pretty grievous fault — in the form of a display error that stops them properly reading touch inputs around the bezel.
Check out the photos and video after the jump.
Pebble is going to have its work cut out for it taking on the Apple Watch. Photo: Pebble
Becoming the most funded Kickstarter in history is certainly enough to boost confidence — and if you’re Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky it’s enough to get you to take some potshots at giant-sized rival, Apple.
With Cupertino’s March 9 Apple Watch event just one week away, Migicovsky has thrown out a few barbed comments about Apple’s eagerly-anticipated debut wearable. Describing the device as “definitely lacking,” Pebble’s founder noted how he’s just not that into smartwatches that are “relegated to being an accessory to your mobile phones.”
Oh, snap!
2014 was the year Apple took the lead against Samsung. Photo: HBO/Cult of Android
Of the smartphone stories which played out in 2014, two of the biggest were the triumph of Apple’s iPhone 6, which sold a massive 10 million+ units in its opening weekend alone, and the faltering of Samsung, which fell from the dominant position it had enjoyed since 2011.
Today, a new report from Gartner (paywall) breaks down both the 1.2 billion smartphone sales that took place worldwide last year, and also the sales from Q4 2014 — revealing how Apple leaped ahead in the smartphone category, while the South Korean tech giant Samsung started to lose its footing.
Make no mistake about it: this was the year everything changed.
