Enterprise
WeChat ban can sink iPhone sales worldwide
Sinks by up to 30 percent
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an official executive order banning TikTok and WeChat starting September 15. Though the spotlight is on TikTok, the pending WeChat ban can also impact the technology industry quite heavily. According to an analyst’s report, the WeChat ban can sink iPhone sales worldwide.
According to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors), the impending ban will determine the iPhone’s fate in the Chinese market. WeChat, a platform owned by Tencent, is a popular messaging app in China. While the app’s presence is drastically lesser in other territories, Chinese immigrants also use the platform to stay in touch with relatives back in China.
If the ban passes, Apple’s App Store can potentially remove the app for all users around the world. Currently, the executive order’s wording is still vague. No one knows if a ban will remove WeChat from American iPhones or all iPhones all over the world.
In the best-case scenario wherein it’s only the US, global iPhone sales will likely drop by up to only 6 percent. This likely pertains to Chinese immigrants in the US. However, in the worst-case scenario wherein iPhones everywhere lose the app, Apple’s sales will sink by up to a whopping 30 percent.
Despite the overwhelming dominance of Chinese brands in China, Apple still retains a sizable share in the country’s market. Compared to last year, the American brand’s market share actually grew in size. If Kuo’s more pessimistic scenario comes to pass, Trump’s orders might have inadvertently doomed Apple’s business in China.
SEE ALSO: Apple is not interested in TikTok
Enterprise
ACMobility Launches ChargeFleet: Seamless solution for businesses
B2B solution for corporate fleets and transport groups
Ayala Group’s ACMobility has launched ChargeFleet, a new B2B digital solution for corporate fleets and transport groups.
The new service introduces a shareable digital wallet that streamlines charging expenses, reduces manual tracking, and improves cost control.
As more organizations explore electrifying their mobility operations, many continue to face operational challenges — including fragmented payment systems, reimbursement delays, and limited visibility over charging usage.
ChargeFleet addresses these gaps by introducing a centralized, shareable digital wallet. Here, fleet managers can allocate and monitor charging credits across multiple drivers across a single platform.
The system is a seamless process designed for long-term usage and easy deployment across any organization.
Once integrated, ACMobility assigns charging credits to the client’s fleet manager. The manager then can distribute these to multiple drivers. Meanwhile, the latter will be able to see and use their assigned credits via the Evro app.
ChargeFleet is available as a prepaid product through the ChargeFleet Store. Users can buy offers via GCash or credit card. No application process is required.
Looking ahead, ACMobility will continue to enhance the ChargeFleet experience with exclusive value-added perks integrated through Evro and Power on Wheels.
The upcoming features highlight ACMobility’s ongoing push to provide a future-proof support system for the evolving needs of their customers’ businesses.
Enterprise
Sony teams up with 13 companies for sustainable global supply chain
Sustainability through introduction of renewable plastics
Sony, along with several companies, have established the world’s first global supply chain for the production of renewable plastics that can be used in Sony’s high-performance audiovisual products.
The supply chain consists of 14 companies across five countries and regions. The various plastic materials manufacture through this supply are slated for use in Sony’s products that will launch worldwide.
High-performance products such as audiovisual equipment involve a wide variety of plastics. The result is a complex supply chain that makes it difficult to visualize and manage the entire flow.
Additionally, plastic components that require high performance in terms of flame resistance and optical properties cannot be fully replaced with plastics from material recycling.
To address these challenges, these 14 companies have collaborated to visualize the existing supply chain for Sony’s products:
- Sony Corporation
- Mitsubishi Corporation
- ADEKA CORPORATION
- CHIMEI Corporation
- ENEOS Corporation
- Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation
- Hanwha Impact Corporation
- Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.
- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
- Neste Corporation
- Qingdao Haier New Material Development Co.
- Ltd., SK Geo Centric Co., Ltd.
- Toray Industries, Inc.
- Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc.
Sustainability through renewable plastics
The new supply chain created will enable the production of multiple types of renewable plastics from biomass resources with a mass balance approach.
This allows Sony to proactively source raw materials for its products with quality, as well as properties equivalent to virgin fossil-based plastics.
Defining the supply chain also helps the companies track and document GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions data in a verifiable way.
This allows participating companies to leverage the data to advance efforts to reduce their carbon footprint going forward.
Sony’s initiative with a wide range of global partners is part of the “Creating NEW from reNEWable materials” jointly launched by the electronics giant and Mitsubishi.
It aims to achieve zero usage of virgin fossil-based plastics through the introduction of renewable plastics.
Enterprise
realme is reportedly going back to being an OPPO sub-brand
All scheduled phones will still launch on time, though.
A popular story among Chinese smartphone brands is whenever a sub-brand spinning off into its own independent entity. A less common one is when an independent entity suddenly merges back into the main entity. And yet, that’s the story we have today. realme is reportedly going back to being a sub-brand of OPPO.
If you don’t remember realme’s time as a sub-brand, then it’s hardly your fault. It’s been a long while since realme was considered a sub-brand. In 2018, the brand spun off on its own to form one of the most popular names in the Chinese smartphone space.
Today, via Leiphone, realme will return to OPPO as a sub-brand. Current realme CEO Sky Li will still retain his responsibilities heading the brand. Plus, all products on the current release schedule will still come out as planned.
However, starting this year, realme will start reintegrating back into OPPO, particularly through the latter’s after-sales programs. OnePlus will also follow the same structure going forward.
Currently, realme has not officially announced the move. That said, we also don’t know how the brand will address the reported change. It’s possible that the shift is just internal and has no effect on how the brand faces the public. For now, only time will tell.
SEE ALSO: realme C85 with 7000mAh battery, 5G connectivity officially launches
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