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Smartphones
Smartphones have their own mobile operating system. The first smartphone to find a widespread market was the Blackberry, but that quickly lost ground after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. That was followed by smartphones powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system. For more smartphone related news check out: https://www.abacusnews.com/topics/smartphones
iPhone 16 handsets on display at an Apple store in New York City, April 4, 2025. Photo: Getty Images/TNS
Apple

Key Apple suppliers pin hopes on new iPhone amid memory price squeeze

Foldable handsets will be a rare bright spot this year, fuelled by Apple’s highly anticipated entrance this autumn, says Counterpoint.

Semiconductors

Why is Xiaomi doubling down on in-house chips amid a profit slump?

Australia

Australia’s top music charts ban AI songs to protect human artists

Hong Kong society

Divorcing devices: how digital detox helps Hongkongers ‘carve out moments’

From phone-free habits to weekend breaks, residents are embracing digital detoxes to ease stress, improve sleep and reclaim focus in an always-on culture.

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
Electric & new energy vehicles

Xiaomi ‘in no rush’ to turn vast AI spending into profits despite earnings slump

The Chinese tech firm has seen its net profits decline for three consecutive quarters, as it rapidly ramps up AI-related R&D spending.

Hong Kong property

CK Hutchison Holdings reports 31-fold surge in first-half profit

Global environment in the first half of 2026 was ‘exceptionally turbulent and uncertain’, says chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi.

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Honor

Robot in a pocket: Honor’s new phone camera nods back at users

The Chinese smartphone maker has integrated embodied AI to control camera movement, along with other features to boost interest amid a cooling market.

Chinese smartphone maker Honor has launched the Robot Phone, a handset with a motorised, fold-out gimbal camera. Photo: Handout
Apple

Apple’s Tim Cook warns Siri AI roll-out in China will take time

In earnings call, Cook says Apple to launch AI software in China, an effort to retain competitive edge in world’s largest smartphone market.

China’s private sector

China’s ATRenew has big plans for Hong Kong’s little-known phone trading hub

New York-listed firm aims to modernise the city’s opaque wholesale market, which sits at the centre of a vast global network for used devices.

Apple

After Apple leak, has India lost ground in its supply chain race with China?

In the wake of a cyberattack on a local Apple partner, insiders say India has a long way to go before challenging China as a manufacturer.

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Illustration: Henry Wong
Huawei

Huawei’s Tau Scaling Law: a new path amid US sanctions

Company founder Ren Zhengfei says the new framework is crucial for survival, enabling chip advancements without EUV lithography.

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Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei is interviewed in Taiyuan, northern Shanxi province on February 9, 2021. Photo: Xinhua
Semiconductors

Surging memory chip prices make profitable budget phones ‘impossible’

Major smartphone vendors will try to abandon the money-losing segment despite strong consumer demand, and pivot to more value-added products.

Samsung Electronics

The latest Samsung folding phones, including new Z Fold 8 to rival Apple

Samsung now offers three Galaxy folding phones, with the Z Fold 8 expected to go head to head with Apple’s inaugural folding iPhone.

Oppo

China’s OnePlus exits US and European markets as smartphone memory pain deepens

The industry is staggering under a chip shortage that has dragged down shipments, forcing handset makers to recalibrate strategies.

OnePlus says it will continue to support existing devices with software updates, security patches and after-sales service, without providing a detailed timeline for its exit. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

China’s StepFun beats Apple and OpenAI to ‘world’s first AI phone’

Tencent-backed firm launches the AI-native StepX Neo smartphone, challenging US tech giants amid Apple-OpenAI legal clashes.

Tencent Holdings-backed StepFun introduced the StepX Neo in Shanghai on Monday, which it claims to be the world's first agentic smartphone. Photo: Weibo
United States

Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets

The lawsuit also targets two ex-employees, Tang Yew Tan, now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, and engineer Chang Liu.

Huawei

Huawei’s new Kirin processor first to use LogicFolding tech, firm says

The chip is set to power the Mate handset and will use Huawei’s Tau Scaling Law framework, which drastically shortens distance that signals travel in circuit.

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The Future of Marketing in Asia

In this age of digital bombardment, outdoor ads are a superpower

The city’s ubiquitous billboards are not battling the smartphone for consumer attention, they’re embracing it.

Despite the "don’t-look-up" philosophy of many mobile phone users, research has shown it takes commuters only a split-second glance to absorb an OOH advert. Photo: Elson Li
Apple

Apple faces new antitrust complaint over ‘unfair’ App Store fees in China

The developers asked the antitrust regulator to investigate and penalise Apple for allegedly ‘abusing the company’s market dominance’.

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Central Asia

Afghan government workers face sack, jail after smartphone ban begins

Employees will be available only ‘via telephone calls and email’, an official says, citing an order from the supreme leader.

Artificial intelligence

Huawei arms HarmonyOS with 2,000 AI agents in challenge to Apple

HarmonyOS 7 introduces an agent-friendly architecture and upgraded AI assistant as Huawei seeks to capitalise on Apple’s China AI gap.

HarmonyOS continued to strengthen its position in China during the first quarter, accounting for 19 per cent of the smartphone operating system market. Photo: Shutterstock
Semiconductors

To beat chip crunch, Chinese firm inks memory deal bigger than its sales

The US$1.86 billion multi-year flash deal with unnamed supplier underscores how downstream companies scramble to secure capacity.

Biwin says the deal reduces the risk of supply disruption caused by market fluctuations. Photo: Handout
Semiconductors

As East Asia pivots to premium AI servers, China seizes a massive tech gap

The AI server boom is driving demand for advanced multilayer ceramic capacitors, leaving Chinese manufacturers room to expand.

Britain

UK’s Starmer gives Apple, Google 3 months to stop kids sending nude images

If firms do not act, the PM said, ‘we will change the law … when it comes to the safety of our children, standing by is not an option’.

Tencent

WeChat to take commands from AI assistants in major shift for Tencent

Phone makers including Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo set to support feature that reverses past reluctance to open the super app.

Apps like WeChat have long been the main gateways to the internet for Chinese consumers. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Mainland China

Huawei to ship more units as price surges dent China’s smartphone sales: report

As higher memory prices raise costs for China’s handset makers, a research firm predicted Huawei would be the only domestic brand to increase shipments.

Huawei Nova 15 Max smartphones at the Huawei Innovative Product launch event in Bangkok on May 7. Photo: EPA
China technology

Editorial | US pressure has only helped make China’s tech giants stronger

Huawei can now bypass ASML’s technology to make the advanced chips that the US has barred from export to China. This has become a familiar story.

Semiconductors

Huawei’s workaround for US chip curbs faces hurdles on road to self-reliance

If proven, the innovation marks a significant milestone for Huawei, which has been cut off from advanced semiconductor technology since 2019.

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