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.

Apps

US increases efforts to ban TikTok and other apps

New bill faces vote later this month

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Millions of users are fans of TikTok. However, the American government is clearly not. Over the years, the country’s officials have experimented with ways to ban the platform from the American tech space. While past efforts haven’t materialized into anything concrete against the Chinese platform, a new bill might finally pave the way to ban TikTok (and other apps) for good.

Today, American senators have introduced a bipartisan bill which will give the government the necessary authority to ban TikTok from American companies. As always, the new bill is concerned about TikTok’s potential as a gateway for Chinese surveillance. If passed, it will prohibit the app from being offered through the App Store and the Play Store on American soil.

If you’ve followed the drama all this time, you might be wondering what’s new this time. Unlike other efforts in the past, the new bill isn’t just limited to TikTok. In fact, it doesn’t even name the app explicitly.

Instead, it aims to introduce a system which will ban other potentially dangerous apps from “adversarial countries” such as China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. When the next Huawei or TikTok rears its head, the government will have an established way to deal with the company, rather than going through years of discussions.

The bill must still pass through a vote later this month, so it’s still an open playing field. However, it isn’t the only effort to curb the platform. A recent act, the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act, aims to deal with the app directly.

SEE ALSO: TikTok is now under investigation by the European Union

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Enterprise

Qualcomm announces world’s first iSIM

Coming with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

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Though the technology is ubiquitous today, there’s still a sense that eSIMs are still working their way into the mainstream. However, the world keeps turning and is already on its way towards the next big thing. Today, Qualcomm has announced what that next big thing is: iSIM.

Qualcomm and Thales have officially confirmed that the world’s first commercially deployable iSIM will arrive on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. All devices with the chipset will be able to enjoy the benefits of the burgeoning technology.

Now, let’s get the biggest question out of the way: What is an iSIM?

SIM cards, as we knew them back then, are little chips we inject (or used to inject) inside smartphones. Over time, the telecommunications industry developed the eSIM (or embedded SIM). Instead of a manually swappable chip, the eSIM is an even tinier chip physically soldered into the smartphone. Telecommunications networks can just digitally install the network data directly into the eSIM.

The iSIM, or integrated SIM, shrinks things even more. Instead of a physically soldered chip, the SIM is now installed inside the hardware, taking up less than 1mm2 of the device’s real estate. Though the difference seems miniscule, freeing up this much space leaves room for improvements in other components. Additionally, an iSIM takes up less power than traditional SIMs and eSIMs.

Qualcomm is already hopeful for the technology, expecting iSIM shipments to grow to 300 million devices by 2027.

SEE ALSO: Qualcomm partners with Mercedes-AMG in F1

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Enterprise

Nokia has an all-new logo

After 55 years with the old one

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Image source: Nokia

In the world of old tech, the Nokia logo is all-enduring. If you lived through the early days of mobile phones, you’ll recognize the simplicity of the Finnish company’s dark blue logo emblazoned on every device back then. Now, after five-and-a-half decades, Nokia is changing things up a bit with a brand new logo.

During MWC 2023, Nokia unveiled a new logo to reflect what the company stands for today. For a company that’s existed since the 1800s, the new logo is as youthful as a startup today. The new logo features a more open font and a brighter blue.

Though the company eventually got its big break for creating one of the most iconic mobile phones in history, Nokia is much more than just a phone brand. The company now handles a wider net of telecommunications technologies. To reflect that, the new logo aims to bring the company’s perception to the present and the future, while paying homage to the era that put it on the map.

If you’re wondering what that means for the brand’s modern smartphones, the old logo isn’t going away entirely. According to Nokia, the deal with HMD Global (which handles the brand’s smartphones today) will retain the old logo for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, both logos will exist in separate spaces. The old logo will exclusively pertain to the brand’s smartphones, while the new logo will usher in the brand’s endeavors in other industries.

SEE ALSO: Nokia seeks to kill OPPO’s sales in some countries

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