Enterprise

realme’s strategy is to go beyond smartphones

But with smartphones still as the central hub

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The rise of realme over the last two years has been nearly meteoric. After building a foundation in Southeast Asia, the brand has announced at IFA 2020 that they’re now ready to take on Europe. Their strategy is to go beyond smartphones but with that personal mobile device as the central hub for everything.

Sound familiar? What realme aims to do appear to be a mish-mash of what Huawei and Xiaomi are doing. Not bad examples to follow seeing as how Huawei sky-rocketed in popularity (US-China trade war notwithstanding), and how Xiaomi has built a cult following for offering smart home devices for less.

Disrupting the smartphone market

We’ve already talked about how realme has been a disruptor by offering flagship features for phones in the lower and upper midrange category. The features range from debuting the 64MP camera, adding a 90Hz refresh rate, and many more.

They have also had success with their budget offering — the realme C series. These budget phones are well-built and have enough oomph for what you may need a smartphone for.

The next frontier is 5G and naturally, realme is also partaking in that area with the realme V series and realme X series.

The realme V Series is mainly for solving low battery anxiety in the 5G era with flash charging and mega battery, enabling better 5G experience. The realme V5 was launched in China in August with 5000mAh mega battery and 30W Dart Charge. Launched in September, realme V3 is designed to bring 5G closer to more people by pricing at at the budget $150 segment.

Meanwhile, the realme X Series is positioned as a lighter and thinner 5G flagship with powerful performance. It will adopt cutting-edge technology and craftsmanship to bring industry-leading trendsetting design and bring a unique experience for the young. Recently, realme X7 and X7 Pro were launched as the 1st choice among 5G flagship with 120Hz AMOLED screen and 65W SuperDart charge.

1+4+N

realme has also started offering a bunch of AIOt products that can be linked to the still developing realme Link App. We’ve seen the some TWS buds and most recently the realme Watch. But it doesn’t stop there.

They’re taking a “1+4+N” strategy meaning they look to lure you into the ecosystem by offering products that first work with the smartphone and extending their reach from that.

  • 1 Core: realme takes smartphone as the core of realme AIoT ecosystem to connect, manage and control all AIoT product with realme Link App.
  • 4 Smart Hubs: realme makes Smart TV, Smart Speaker, Smart Watch and Smart Earphone as the top 4 smart hubs to help consumers manage and control more AIoT products together with smartphones.
  • N AIoT products: The ‘N’ here represents realme’s commitment to bring a plethora of new AIOT and peripheral product, and trendsetting lifestyle products for our fans. realme aims to build a trendsetting community for the young.

realme is poised to launch over 50 AIoT products in 2020, and 100 in 2021, to make AIoT become a part of our lives in a more easy and affordable way.

In 2020 Q4, realme will enhance this AIoT ecosystem with its first 55” TV, wireless and TWS ANC earphone, medium and high-end smartphone, and smart camera and smart bulb.

A brand for the youth

realme also has its cross-hairs squarely focused on the youth. The idea is to bring this new digital home lifestyle closer to the youth. To do that, they need to make the products affordable but made with quality. For the most part, they’re on the right track.

At present, realme has over 45 million users in 61 markets worldwide. They’re top 5 in Singapore, top 4 in Australia, top 4 in India, and top 4 in SEA. As mentioned earlier, the next market of interest is Europe then Latin America.

Enterprise

AMD poised to lead agentic AI era with high-performance CPUs

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AMD is prepared to lead the industry in its agentic AI era with their high-performance CPU strategy.

As the industry pivots from simple AI models to agentic AI systems that are capable of independent planning and decision-making, the CPU is reclaiming its role as the critical “head coach” of the data center.

This was noted by AMD CEO and Chair Dr. Lisa Su during the AMD Advancing AI event last year. The rise of autonomous agents has transformed inference into a complex and multi-step workflow that demands sophisticated logic and orchestration.

And while high-performance GPUs are necessary to generate insights in real time, the surrounding infrastructure is just as important.

This is where CPUs enter the picture. Their performance and efficiency are more important than ever in the overall performance of modern AI infrastructure.

And AMD delivers an advantage with their offerings. In recently published data, a 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPU-based system is estimated to perform up to 2.1x better per core against an NVIDIA Grace Superchip-based system.

The same system AMD-based system also delivers up to 2.26x uplift on SPECpower, measuring operations per watt.

The x86 CPU architecture gives customers the advantage of a broad, proven software ecosystem that can run existing workloads natively.

This avoids the costly refactoring and code-base duplication often required when switching to Arm-based alternatives.

Looking ahead, AMD is doubling down on the balanced system philosophy. Future architectures such as the “Venice” CPUs will power the “Helios” rack-scale AI design.

By integrating EPYC CPUs with Instinct GPUs and the ROCm software stack, AMD aims to maximize cluster-level performance and lower the total cost of ownership in the agentic era.

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Enterprise

Nintendo sues the United States

The Japanese company wants a refund for illegal tariffs.

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What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? After a year of wrestling through tariffs from the current American administration, Nintendo has decided to sue the United States.

Last year, the Trump administration was trigger-happy with implement tariffs on countries everywhere. Though the controversy mostly circulated around geopolitics, major corporations also found themselves on the receiving end of Trump’s ire. All over the world, the tariffs sparked product delays and price hikes.

Nintendo is no exception. As a result of the fiasco, the company had to delay the launch of the Switch 2, in anticipation of disruptions caused by the tariffs. First reported by Aftermath, the Japanese gaming giant is now going after the American government over refunds associated with the tariffs.

Now, the tariffs aren’t a big issue anymore. Notably, the Supreme Court scratched off the White House’s implementations that the former found illegal. While a big sigh of relief for future business, corporations like Nintendo have already paid duties and deposits in the past. As a result, Nintendo is now looking for recompense for what they paid before.

Nintendo isn’t the first company to seek restitution over the illegal tariffs. Others, including FedEx and Revlon, are also asking for refunds. However, the Japanese giant is certainly one of the biggest names to cross the government’s path. After all, the company is notoriously litigious over anything it considers as an affront to its business, including small streamers using Pokémon on their broadcasts.

With all its global resources, Nintendo likely won’t just give up without a fight.

SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch is now Nintendo’s best-selling console ever

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Enterprise

Paramount wins bid for HBO Max, plans to merge streaming apps

It’s all part of the deal to acquire the Warner Bros. library.

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Last year ended with the bombshell announcement that Netflix might buy the entire Warner Bros. library. However, after some finagling and a rocky start, Paramount has now emerged as the main suitor for the lucrative library.

At the end of last year, it seemed all but confirmed that the gigantic Warner Bros. library was coming to Netflix as part of a huge buyout deal. This became even clearer when Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount’s initial bid to counter Netflix. However, Paramount recently revised its offer to an astounding US$ 110 billion, or US$ 31 per share, which Warner Bros. Discovery signed off on. Netflix passed on the opportunity for a counteroffer, making Paramount the sole bidder.

Today, Paramount has announced that, if the deal pushes through, they will merge Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streaming service. This means that Paramount’s CBS, Comedy Central, and MTV will be under the same roof as DC, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Mission: Impossible.

The value of the above names alone makes this into one of the most lucrative deals for Paramount. However, it’s not without its drawbacks. The combined entity will reportedly carry US$ 79 billion in net debt for both purchasing Warner Bros. and refinancing the newly purchased property.

Currently, the deal is expected to go through regulatory approval ending in the second half of 2026.

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