Apple debuts $17,000 watch, some waiting for killer app

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc launched its long-awaited watch on Monday, including yellow or rose gold models with sapphire faces costing up to $17,000, but some investors questioned whether Chief Executive Tim Cook’s first product would be a breakaway hit.

Apple’s first new device since Cook became CEO will be available for order on April 10 and in stores on April 24, including chic boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo.

In a nod to both fashion and technology, Cook shared the stage with model Christy Turlington Burns, who used it to train for a marathon, and Apple engineers who showed how to send drawings, pictures and even heartbeats with the watch.

Apple shares barely budged, however. Investors and analysts agreed that Apple would sell millions to fans but questioned whether it had a “killer app” that would engage a broader audience. Apple in September gave a sneak peek of the watch which included many features shown on Monday.

“I think there’s a niche market for these kind of Apple tech people who love Apple and will buy anything they come out with. But I just don’t know if it’s going to be the power product that everyone’s looking for,” said Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia, who described Wall Street as “scratching its head”.

Members of the style establishment, in Paris for shows from the glittering likes of Chanel, Givenchy and Hermes mostly said they saw the watch as a gadget, not this season’s must-have accessory.

The Edition price tag which is inexpensive compared with a Patek Philippe Nautilus at just over $42,000 on 11main.com, inspired plenty of jibes on social media, including many who questioned whether it would become outdated and compared the price to a car’s. “Wonder what kind of gas mileage it gets,” asked Twitter user Christopher Caruso.

Nevertheless many made clear they wanted it. “My birthday is gonna rock this year… :-) #applewatch,” wrote Jay Runquist.

The Apple Watch sport will start at $349 for the smaller, 38-mm model. The standard version of the watch will start at $549 and the high-end “Edition” watch will be priced from $10,000, said Cook, who loved the Dick Tracy ability to hold phone calls by watch.

“I have been wanting to do this since I was five years old,” said Cook.

The different models reflect different materials. A $17,000 Edition in the smaller, 38-mm size, has a case made from a customised version of 18-karat rose gold, which is especially hard, along with a sapphire display. It comes with a magnetic charging case.

A $349 Sport model the same size has an aluminium case, a ‘sport band’ and a magnetic charging cable, and no case.

All the watches share digital faces that can look like traditional time pieces, show the heart beat of a friend, and display photos and interfaces for apps.

“Apple’s been very good at personalizing its products,” said Angelo Zino, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, who said the “intimacy” of the watch was appealing. He saw 10 million in sales this year.

In the presentation, Cook described the watch handling many functions currently associated with the iPhone, which tethers wirelessly to the watch and connects it to the Internet.

The watch will track exercise and remind wearers of events with a tap on the wrist.

Cook also laid out other product successes and launched a new MacBook notebook computer that starts at $1,299 and weighs as little as 2 pounds.

Every major car brand had committed to delivering Apple’s CarPlay entertainment system, and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have 99 percent customer satisfaction rates, he said. The Apple Pay payment system is now accepted at 700,000 locations, and Time Warner Inc’s HBO in April will debut its streaming HBO NOW service on Apple TV.

Apple also is offering researchers new development tools, called ResearchKit, to help medical researchers design apps for clinical trials, the company said.

No “wow” factor?

source: interaksyon.com

Actress Emma Watson urges more men to fight for gender equality

LONDON | British actress Emma Watson urged more men and boys on Sunday to take a stand for women’s rights and be proud to be feminists in a bid to add momentum to a global campaign to unite men and women for gender equality.

Watson, 24, a goodwill ambassador for U.N. Women, used International Women’s Day to add impetus to the HeForShe campaign that was launched in September last year and encourages men and boys to join the fight for equal rights.

So far around 240,000 men have pledged their commitment online, according to the HeForShe website, including U.S. President Barack Obama and actor Matt Damon, but there is a target to mobilize one billion men and boys by July this year.

“There has been a ground swell of support but we need more men to take a stand for gender equality,” Watson told a discussion on gender equality at Facebook’s London headquarters.

“Men often think that feminism is a women’s word … but if you stand for gender equality, you are a feminist.”

Watson, who rose to fame as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, said the campaign was not about men saving women and also called upon women to support the campaign.

“It’s uncomfortable and awkward for women to acknowledge there is a problem, but we need to understand we are complicit,” she said.

The actress said she was pleased with the response to the IMPACT 10X10X10 initiative, a one-year pilot project launched in January seeking commitments from governments, companies and universities on women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Several countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Sierra Leone, have backed the campaign, Watson said.

When asked about gender equality on a global scale, Watson praised the power of social media to allow girls and women to interact with others who can provide advice and support.

Audience members chosen by U.N. Women to attend the event submitted their stories online of what they had done to advance gender equality.

Jacob Anderson, 24, a Swedish designer, said he was an active supporter of women’s rights on online forums and social media.

“Gender equality should be talked about far more than it currently is … it doesn’t make sense that women and men don’t have equal rights,” Anderson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the event in London.

source: interaksyon.com

Brent drops toward $59 as dollar firms on U.S. jobs data

SINGAPORE - Brent crude fell toward $59 a barrel on Monday as a promising U.S. jobs report pushed the dollar up, offsetting geopolitical tensions and the threat of output cuts in Libya and Iraq.

The dollar hit a more than 11-year high against a basket of currencies after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate fell to the lowest since May 2008 in February, making commodities priced in the greenback costlier for holders of other currencies

Brent eased 43 cents to $59.30 by 0445 GMT, after dropping 75 cents in the previous session. It fell 4.6 percent last week in its biggest decline since the week ended Jan. 9.

U.S. crude was down 27 cents at $49.34. It closed down $1.15 on Friday to complete a third week of declines.

Goldman Sachs  said in a note that oil prices would reverse recent gains on rising global inventories, with U.S. crude expected to drop to around $40 a barrel.

Oil prices rose by almost a third between January and February on the back of Middle East supply disruptions, strong winter demand and high refinery margins.

But the focus is now on the dollar, analysts said.

"The U.S. dollar is continuing to strengthen. In the short-term it's more about the dollar than anything else," said Ben LeBrun, market analyst at Sydney's OptionsXpress.

U.S. economic data to be released on Tuesday could lead to a further strengthening of the U.S. dollar which would be negative for commodities including oil, said LeBrun.

He said geopolitical issues in North Africa and the Middle East "are all playing second fiddle to the U.S. dollar".

Goldman said in its note that "absent further unexpected OPEC disruptions, we expect Brent oil prices and timespreads to reverse their recent strength".

Members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should not cut output to "subsidize" higher-cost shale, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri has said.

In Libya, up to 10 foreign workers are missing in the latest attack on the country's oil fields by Islamist militants and there is a possibility they have been taken hostage, Czech and Libyan officials said on Saturday.

Brent should trade within a range of $55.36-$63.04 this week, said Singapore's Phillip Futures in a note on Monday.

U.S. crude should trade between $48.45-$55.02 although prices could move sharply upwards if the U.S. refinery strikes end this week, Phillip Futures said.

source: interaksyon.com

Messi’s hat trick, Suarez’ double put Barca on top of La Liga

Barcelona moved to the top of La Liga for the first time since early November as Lionel Messi struck his 32nd hat-trick for the club in a 6-1 thrashing of 10-man Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.

Champions Atletico Madrid remain seven points off the top, though, after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Valencia at the Vicente Calderon.

Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday handed Barca the chance to overtake the European champions and Luis Suarez wasted no time in taking advantage as he slotted home his sixth goal in as many games.

Gerard Pique doubled the hosts’ advantage just after half-time before Messi added a third from the penalty spot at the second attempt thanks to a reprieve from the referee after his initial effort was saved by Cristian Alvarez and Tito had been sent-off for a second bookable offence.

There was no controversy over the Argentine’s final two goals, though, as he moved level with Cristiano Ronaldo on 30 league goals for the season.

Both sides ended with 10 men when Dani Alves was shown a straight red card for bringing down Alberto Bueno inside the area and Bueno converted from the spot.

However, Barca had the final word when Suarez slammed home his second of the afternoon from Messi’s through ball.

“The objective is to be the leader when the season ends,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique.

“I have always said the big teams will lose throughout the course of the season and it will continue to happen, therefore we have to be very careful.”

Suarez has found his scoring touch in recent weeks after a slow start to life at the Camp Nou and was razor sharp in front of goal just six minutes in as he rolled his defender before flicking the ball past Alvarez with the outside of his right foot.

Impossible task

Enrique’s men had to wait until after the break to make the game safe as Jordi Alba’s header from Xavi’s corner came back off the post and Pique was on hand to force the ball over the line.

Rayo’s task became impossible seven minutes later when Suarez was pulled down by Tito inside the area and the defender was shown a second yellow card.

Messi’s yips from the penalty spot continued as, after missing five of his last 10 for club and country, Alvarez comfortably saved his first effort.

However, referee Jesus Gil Manzano ruled there had been encroachment by Rayo players and gave Messi a second opportunity which he didn’t pass up.

The four-time World Player of the Year was in the right place to slot home his second moments later after Alvarez had made a fine save to deny Suarez.

And Messi completed a 12-minute hat-trick with a lovely feint to leave Alvarez on the floor before rolling the ball into an empty net.

The action continued in the final quarter as Manzano levelled up the numbers by sending off Alves for a foul on Bueno inside the box nine minutes from time and the former Real Madrid midfielder converted from the spot.

However, it was Suarez who rounded off the scoring in style in stoppage time when he latched on to Messi’s neat pass to round Alvarez and turn the ball home from a narrow angle.

Any chance of a title challenge to the big two has faded after the spoils were shared in the battle between third and fourth at the Calderon.

Spanish international Koke fired Atletico into the lead on his return to the starting line-up from a hamstring injury just after the half hour mark.

Tiago then missed a great chance to make it 2-0 after the break when he smashed the ball against the bar from barely three yards out.

And that miss was to prove vital as Miguel Angel Moya misjudged Dani Parejo’s free-kick from the right and when the ball rebounded off the bar, Shkodran Mustafi was on hand to head home the rebound.

Elsewhere, Villarreal bounced back from their Copa del Rey elimination at the hands of Barcelona in midweek with a 4-1 win over Celta Vigo.

David Moyes’s Real Sociedad also continued their march away from the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Espanyol.

source: interaksyon.com

Mandarin Oriental says hackers stole credit card data

NEW YORK — Hackers broke into the Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel group’s database and stole credit card information from “an isolated number” of its properties in the United States and Europe.

“The incident is a direct result of an unauthorized cyber-attack,” the Hong Kong-based group said in a statement Thursday.

“Unfortunately incidents of this nature are increasingly becoming an industry-wide concern and therefore we have also alerted our technology peers in the hospitality industry.”

The hotel group said the breach came from malicious software that was “undetectable by all anti-viral systems.”

Mandarin said it had removed the malware and was “coordinating with credit card agencies, law enforcement authorities and forensic specialists to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to fully protect our guests and our systems across our portfolio.”

The luxury lodging group did not identify the hotels affected but said none of them were in Asia.

“We can confirm that only an isolated number of hotels in the US and Europe have been affected,” the statement said.

“Moreover, from the information we have to date, the breach has only affected credit card data and not any other personal guest data, and credit card security codes have not been compromised.”

Part of the Jardine Matheson group, Mandarin Oriental operates some 45 hotels in 25 countries.

source: interaksyon.com

Prince plans U.S. tour of spontaneous shows

NEW YORK | Prince, never one to tie himself down to music industry practices, is planning a U.S. tour. But how to find out where the shows are taking place is another question.

Prince’s promoters announced Friday that the rock icon will bring his “Hit and Run” tour to the United States, which last year saw him play across Europe in a series of shows revealed at the last minute — including two a night in both Paris and London.

The 56-year-old “Purple Rain” creator gave details about the Europe shows on Twitter. But in a problem for the U.S. tour, he abruptly left social media in November.

Prince’s promoters revealed only that his first U.S. show for “Hit and Run” will take place on March 14 somewhere in Louisville, Kentucky.

The city may seem aptly random, but it is the hometown of Hannah Welton, the drummer of his all-female collaborating band 3rdEyeGirl, and the show will raise money for local charities.

The tour comes after Prince showed up with no prior announcement at last month’s Grammys to present the Album of the Year.

Prince last year released two albums simultaneously — “Art Official Age” and “Plectrumelectrum,” the latter performed with 3rdEyeGirl.

The twin release marked Prince’s return to the Warner Brothers label two decades after he famously protested his contractual terms by writing “slave” on his cheek and changing his name to the unpronounceable “love symbol.”

source: interaksyon.com

McDonald's to cut back on chicken fed with antibiotics

WASHINGTON - Fast-food giant McDonald's announced Wednesday it would stop serving chicken raised with antibiotics that are important to human health, as worries grow over resistance to crucial drugs.

McDonald's said it would work with poultry farmers to halt the use of what the World Health Organization has identified as "critically important antimicrobials" to feed the chickens it serves alongside its popular hamburgers.

Some antibiotics would still be allowed, but only poultry-specific ones not used on people.

"While McDonald's will only source chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine, the farmers who supply chicken for its menu will continue to responsibly use ionophores, a type of antibiotic not used for humans that helps keep chickens healthy," the company said.

"Our customers want food that they feel great about eating -- all the way from the farm to the restaurant -- and these moves take a step toward better delivering on those expectations," said McDonald’s US president Mike Andres.

McDonald's said that it hoped to implement the new restrictions at its 14,000 US restaurants over the next two years.

The move will help prod changes by the large industrial chicken suppliers which have fostered widespread use of human antibiotics among growers.

Over several decades livestock producers have increasingly fed a wide range of antibiotics to animals to prevent disease and boost growth.

McDonald's said it would not accept any poultry in which antibiotics are used to encourage growth.

It said it recognizes that farmers could use human-use antibiotics on sick animals, but that it would not accept those into its food supply.

The move comes in response to a growing number of health-conscious consumers who have shown in supermarket and restaurant purchases that they are interested and willing to pay for healthier food.

A year ago the Chik-fil-A chain, the largest fast food buyer of chickens, announced a plan to go completely antibiotic-free within five years.

Following that, Purdue, the third largest chicken processor, said it had stopped using human antibiotics on 95 percent of its chickens, and would no longer inject hatchery eggs with antibiotics as a preventative and growth booster.

Laura Rogers, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said it is crucial to slash the use of antibiotics in the livestock industry.

"Every time we use antibiotics... we have the potential to get antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We are running out of new antibiotics and new types of antibiotics," she told AFP.

But she said the changes are consumer-driven, after years of failed efforts by activists to get the US Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of critical human antibiotics.

"McDonald's made this change because that's what their customers wanted," she told AFP.

But she also noted McDonald's additional statement this week that their criteria in part come from the WHO push to prohibit the use in animals of antimicrobials defined as "critically important" to human medicine. 

"They are at least the first major food company that's talked about responsible use," she said.

Even so, McDonald’s made no mention of the beef used in its popular hamburgers, or pork.

Making the change in both could be more complicated, acknowledged Rogers.

"Raising beef is different from raising hogs or raising turkeys," she said.

But the activist group Food and Water Watch said it's not enough to wait for the industry to evolve with consumers.

"We're glad to hear McDonald's realizes the public doesn't want food from factory farms that overuse antibiotics," said executive director Wenonah Hauter.

"But voluntary measures are not enough. It's past time for the FDA to force the meat industry to eliminate its use of harmful antibiotics though enforceable, non-voluntary regulation."

source: interaksyon.com

EU bets on 5G to catch up in mobile technology race

BRUSSELS/BARCELONA — The European Union is looking to sign agreements with China, Japan, and the United States to cooperate on developing the next generation of mobile broadband as it seeks to help its companies catch up in the race to develop such technologies.

Europe, once a leader in the 1990s in the second-generation GSM technology standard for mobile phone networks moving into the digital era, has fallen behind the United States, Japan, and South Korea in the deployment of the latest 4G standard for mobile broadband services.

The region’s network operators including Britain’s Vodafone and Spain’s Telefonica were slower to move to 4G than Japan, Korea, and the United States and adoption in Europe remains lower compared to other advanced economies.

European policymakers are now trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past and are seeking to be at the forefront of developing the standards for 5G, which promises much faster video downloads, denser network coverage and the possibility of connecting billions of everyday electronic objects to create “the internet of things”.

“With 5G, Europe has a great opportunity to reinvent its telecom industrial landscape,” Guenther Oettinger, the EU’s Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, told the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.

In June last year the European Commission signed an agreement with South Korea in which the two sides committed to cooperating on setting technical standards and ensure the necessary radio frequencies are able to support the new network.

“It is our intention to sign similar agreements with other key regions of the world, notably Japan, China, and the United States,” Oettinger said.

The Commission will soon start formal discussions on 5G with China, according to a person familiar with the matter, which is also keen to have its say on what 5G should do. China is home to the world’s second-biggest maker of mobile network equipment, Huawei, and ZTE, the fifth biggest.

But the chief executive of France’s Orange said work remained to be done on 4G, whose rollout across Europe has been patchy and slow.

“We need to prepare for 5G but let’s not jump too fast. We should enjoy 4G,” he said.

Most industry experts expect the first commercial deployments of 5G in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Much work remains to be done to set technical standards for the technology, and figure out exactly what it is supposed to do that current 4G gear cannot, experts say.

In the meantime, companies that make mobile network equipment such as Sweden’s Ericsson, Huawei, Finland’s Nokia and France-based Alcatel-Lucent are jockeying for position and carrying out experiments with operators to prepare for 5G.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is already working with Nokia and Ericsson to develop networks running at high frequencies for use in the 5G wireless era – technology expected to be showcased at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Meanwhile Huawei has said it will invest $600 million in 5G research and expects to have a network ready for deployment by 2020.

“We are closely working with our customers to get to 5G. It is the only way to fully meet the demand of machine to machine technology,” said Huawei’s chief executive Ken Hu.

The head of Nokia, Rajeev Suri, said that he thinks the drive to develop 5G technology promises to be a “three-horse race” between Ericsson, Huawei and his firm, leaving out the fourth biggest equipment maker, Alcatel-Lucent.

“I don’t aspire only to be third,” said Suri on a panel on Tuesday. “We will move up.”

source: interaksyon.com

Huawei plans big push to sell its phones, wearable devices

SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING — Two years after U.S. legislators branded it a national security threat, China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is planning a campaign to win over U.S. consumers, rolling out new mobile phones and wearable devices backed by a marketing effort.

China’s second-largest smartphone maker, already with more than $40 billion in annual revenue from a wide range of telecom gear and products, is preparing to introduce Americans to several of its smartphones and wearable devices this year, including its youth-oriented “Honor” phone, Huawei officials told Reuters.

The company’s 2015 U.S. plans, which have not been previously reported, will encompass traditional advertising, online promotion and sports team sponsorships, said Huawei’s U.S. spokesman Bill Plummer.

Huawei is changing its approach to marketing as it tries to shed its image as a purveyor of cheap technology products – a common perception issue for many Chinese companies. It’s an important shift for a company that for years had been single-mindedly focused on engineering and relatively dismissive of consumer branding.

In December, it touted its new Honor 6 Plus phone on a billboard in New York’s Times Square. Plummer said that was “a sign of things to come.”

He declined to say how much Huawei will spend on its new marketing campaign or what sports team, or teams, it had in mind. It already sponsors London soccer club Arsenal, cricket teams in India and rugby clubs in Australia.

New smartwatch

At the Mobile World Congress over the weekend in Barcelona, Huawei took the wraps off a smartwatch that will be sold in over 20 countries including the U.S.

Huawei now intends to appeal directly to consumers with several new phone models, both low end and high end. It hopes to secure deals with carriers, selling online through marketplaces, such as the one operated by Amazon.com, and on its own fledgling gethuawei.com U.S. direct-sales website.

It’s unclear how open the carriers, who dominate U.S. sales, would be to carrying phones from Huawei, a brand that remains unknown to the majority of American smartphone users. Reviews of its high-end phones, which can cost hundreds of dollars without a plan, have been generally positive.

Still, the U.S. market is dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics. None of the four biggest U.S. carriers – Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile – currently sell Huawei phones on their websites and all declined to say whether they have had talks with the Chinese company.

Huawei said in 2013 it would focus on other markets after its products were labelled a national security risk in a U.S. Congressional report, which said Beijing could use Huawei equipment for spying. Huawei denied the report, but Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei, who founded the company after leaving the Chinese military, told reporters at the time he felt stuck in a U.S.-China trade war.

A White House-ordered review found no evidence of spying.

Lawmakers’ concerns revolve primarily around Huawei’s networking equipment. And analysts say that a lack of brand recognition is a bigger hurdle for Huawei’s smartphone ambitions than pressures from Washington.

Huawei currently has less than 1 percent of the U.S. market, according to research firm IDC. But it can perhaps draw inspiration from China’s ZTE Corp, which has gained 6.4 percent of the U.S. market by selling cheaper smartphones and working with second-tier carriers like Boost Mobile, according to Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC.

Online sales, particularly as no-contract plans that require consumers to purchase a full-price phone gain in popularity, represent perhaps the best option for Huawei, said Gartner analyst C.K. Lu, adding that he sees it having a tough time signing carriers.

“The U.S. market is tough for anybody except Apple and Samsung,” said Lu.

Huawei’s plan to broaden its U.S. offering is part of a campaign for “normalizing” perceptions of Huawei in America and elsewhere, said Plummer.

Though he declined to spell out what normalization entailed, most public discussion of the company has centered around the debate of whether its equipment allows China to spy on the United States, and until now Huawei has kept a low profile.

Other Chinese companies still prefer that route: another major Chinese handset maker, Xiaomi, has said it will take its first steps onto U.S. soil without smartphones, choosing instead to sell earphones and other accessories to test the market.

source: interaksyon.com

Asian firms challenge Apple with snazzy new smartphones

BARCELONA, Spain — Several big Asian phone companies launched new high-end smartphones and other wireless gizmos on Sunday, hoping to challenge US giant Apple in a big year for wireless gadgets.

Samsung, fellow South Korean firm LG and hip Chinese maker HTC timed their smartphone launches to grab the attention on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest telecoms trade fair, in Barcelona, Spain.

In a head-on challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone 6 which was released last year, Samsung came out fighting on Sunday with the Galaxy S6, a smartphone with a touchscreen that curves around the edges and has a wireless charger.

It also presented the larger S6 Edge, a “phablet” somewhere between a tablet and a phone in size.

LG unveiled a new top-line phone with a curved back to sit snugly in the palm, the LG Flex 2, as well as a range of four new mid-range smartphones and two new luxury internet-connected watches.

At a noisy stage presentation before a crowd of hundreds, HTC chief executive Peter Chou meanwhile presented the HTC One M9, with a grey metallic handset moulded from a single piece of aluminium.

HTC also revealed a new connected “fitness band” body-monitoring bracelet and a virtual reality headset that it said it hoped to sell commercially by the end of the year.

Apple as usual was staying away from the Barcelona show but was reported to be preparing a coup with the launch next month of its new Apple Watch, reflecting a major trend in wearable gadgets this year.

The chief executive of Samsung’s mobile division, J.K. Shin, said the company aimed to set “a new standard to drive the global mobile agenda”, claiming his phones had the fastest processers and most high-performance cameras on the market.

Samsung is the world’s biggest seller of smartphones but saw its world market share fall last year from 34 percent to 20 percent, according to a report by tech consultancy IDC.

“There’s a risk Samsung’s 2015 flagship devices are insufficient for the company to regain brand leadership among consumers and businesses looking for high-end smartphone experiences,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at another consultancy, Forrester, in a note after Sunday’s launch.

“Samsung’s lack of software DNA will still prevent it from delivering truly differentiated service experiences like Apple does.”

Also present at the congress were two of the world’s other biggest-selling smartphone makers, Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi.

Joining in the rush for big launches on the eve of the trade fair, Huawei unveiled its first “smartwatch”, a round luxury design that, like LG’s, can display incoming call and message alerts.

The companies refused to cite consumer prices for the new products. Top-end smartphones typically cost several hundred dollars.

source: interaksyon.com