From China -- Lack of innovation precipitates Apple's Decline

I scraped this one because it's good, and I don't know about the stability of the source.

Global Times, China

Apple's iPhone fever has apparently faded, however, the iPhone 7 announcement remains in the global spotlight. Despite a lot of rumors and leaks surrounding the new phone, expectations are generally low for Apple's next-generation phone, supposedly coming with processor and camera upgrades, new colors and a slightly different exterior style. These improvements suggest Apple has turned from a trendsetter - as it has been known as for years - into a follower of other manufacturers.

Next year will mark the iPhone's 10th anniversary. Over the past year, the global smartphone industry has been stuck in a downturn and only innovation can help revive and save the entire sector. Apple, however, seems to have been absent during the battle of innovation. The company's market capitalization touched $767.2 billion on April 28, 2015 before getting trapped in a downward spiral. Prior to the iPhone 7 launch event, Apple's market capitalization had lost nearly $200 billion from its peak.

In the fiscal quarter ended March 26, Apple reported its first revenue decline in 13 years. In its third fiscal quarter ended June 25, the company took a global hit. In greater China, Apple's revenue dropped 33 percent in the third fiscal quarter from the year before. A revenue fall to such an extent is generally considered a disaster, but luckily Apple still has over $200 billion in cash revenues.

In the global technology arena, it seems that Apple never invested heavily in research and development (R&D), but instead held to the lowest possible R&D investment. The iPhone maker that has focused on the smartphone world, in a stingy way, has for years failed to present any exciting innovations. In fairness, recent advances in the smartphone landscape have all represented a sustaining innovation, in the commercialization of virtual reality jointly pushed by Facebook and Samsung, camera breakthroughs unveiled by Huawei, curved phones from LG, phones outfitted with modular attachments such as speakers that Lenovo is betting on, or some so-called black technology - frameless smartphone display, curved screen, fast charging capability, dual-camera tech, and eye recognition features. But even in these little waves of change, Apple almost always goes missing.

When the iPhone fever cools and Apple's legend fades away, and as consumers embrace a return to reason, Apple should probably brace for a recession in the future. With smartphone users worldwide having just hit 2 billion this year, less than 30 percent of the world population and lower than the global online population of 3.5 billion, the curtain has only just risen on the smartphone era inaugurated by Apple. Smartphones have already become the most convenient and effective tool to enable Internet connection. At this time, we can't forecast who will be the next to stand out as the next huge innovator, but surely without Steve Jobs, it is less likely to be Apple.

Unlike Apple's previous new product events, Chinese consumers staying up all night to be among the first to get information about new phone details was no longer expected prior to the iPhone 7 launch event. The continued cooling of the consumption triggered by Apple's legend may still be good for the industry after all, making way for late-coming innovators to embrace new opportunities as well as open space.

Globally, sales of the iPhone have hit 1 billion, a record that may not be broken for quite some time. Banking on its iOS operating system and App Store that has gathered a galaxy of developers across the globe, and 600-700 million active users, it is unlikely that Apple will follow Nokia's path and tumble quickly. However, there are conspicuous signs that Apple is falling from its pinnacle. The fundamental reason behind the dismantling of the US tech giant's dominance is that with the Internet sweeping across the world, "Innovation is King" remains the supreme principle to achieve success. Thus Apple which rose to fame thanks to innovation may be destined to fade away because of a lack of innovation.

The author is the founder of technology think tank ChinaLabs. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Sony From Survival to Innovation

Thanks D.

AsiaNikkei  (A lot more at the source)


TOKYO -- Its electronics are profitable again. Its bottom line, once deep in the red, is in the black. Its engineers are flexing their product development muscle.

Sony is back. And its goal of booking a 500 billion yen ($4.95 billion) operating profit for the first time in two decades suddenly seems within the realm of possibility.

But before investors and consumers fully buy into the turnaround, the company will have to do what it once did so well: wow the world. Sony hopes to do just that with a combination of robotics, artificial intelligence and everyday gadgetry.

Yet, here we are in 2016, and Sony has just posted its first consolidated net profit in three years -- 147 billion yen. It is the first time in seven years that the company has managed to turn a profit excluding one-offs, such as proceeds from property sales.

More crucially, perhaps, electronic hardware turned profitable for the first time in five years. That excludes game consoles, which were already money-makers.

After a series of bold restructuring measures, Hirai and a team of innovators are determined to ensure the turnaround is no fluke.

"SONY 2.0" One key player is Hiroaki Kitano, president and CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories. Kitano developed the Aibo robotic dog -- a product that attracted a devoted following but was cut as Sony's earnings worsened back in 2006. He is still regarded as a guru in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Sony is working on prototypes -- from earphones to desktop minirobots -- in search of the ideal AI interface. "We will develop AI platforms that can serve as the fundamental infrastructure for society and life in the future," Hirai said.

For the president, it is all about the "last 1 inch," or the point where people come in contact with the cloud and artificial intelligence.

Yoshida, the finance chief, is convinced all this will put Sony on a firm footing. "Connecting AI and robotics to a network," he predicted, "will create new services that will earn recurring revenue from stable customers."

Finally, after nearly two decades of focusing on what ails the company, executives are looking toward the future. MIT's Ito, for his part, believes that future is bright. "Sony has great potential," he told the Nikkei Asian Review. "You should expect a lot of the company."

RoBoHon -- Finally some genuine mobile innovation

This little device really is doing something unexpected. 

People look at it,  ask "what the hell?" and then they want it. 

It would be cool without the projector, but it's REALLY cool with the projector.

I've heard and I've been reading the angst of many stockholders who think this is some kind of farce. 

They want a projector in a phone, or one in a sled. Numbers they can count. I get that. They want to be able to total up numbers of units, put a number on it and calculate company earnings. 

I suspect that kind of thinking by the management at mobile handset companies is the reason that we haven't had significant innovation in smartphones for years. We've had years of marginal improvements, but in spite of the great language for the new handsets that are coming out, the most daring thing I've seen in recent history is the Samsung Galaxy edge, where the display wraps around the side of the phone. -- Is that all they can pull off?

So, now we have a charming little robot that is showing everyone the capabilities of PicoP. The mainstream media hasn't latched onto this yet, but the tech media is buzzing. Cellphone innovation is suddenly wide-open, and the idea of a phone with all the functionality of this robot - now is more likely to look like a low-risk, no-brainer to those big OEMS.

The tiny touch-screen and voice activation are huge here. Sharp has shown the way to a smart phone with a smaller form factor and a jumbo screen. That is an innovation nearly everyone wants desperately.

At this point its hard to not be excited about this. This is getting eyes on MicroVision's technology. I'm sure all the big OEMS have seen it now. There's more to come though, because as much as WE have been paying attention to RoBoHon, and MicroVision -- it's STILL really only noticeable in the Tech and gadget circles.

...when the tech is connected with the new SONY projector, and other products (the Fujitsu glasses with Retinal scan display? (I'm 95% sure that MicroVision is in there, but it hasn't been announced.)

I think we're on the edge of an explosion of interest. Almost there. In spite of the action in the stock of the last week, I've never been more optimistic.