Apple Preparing for life after iPhone

Interesting stuff.

As you read this, remember that Apple just created its first head of AR Marketing.

They're also talking here about a lot of video streaming.

Writing off display-only is WAY premature.

Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. AAPL -0.22% is shaking up leadership and reordering priorities across its services, artificial intelligence, hardware and retail divisions as it works to reduce the company’s reliance on iPhone sales.

The changes, which can be traced back to last year, have included high-profile hires, noteworthy departures, meaningful promotions and consequential restructurings. They have rattled rank-and-file employees unaccustomed to frequent leadership changes and led Apple to put several projects on hold while new managers are given a chance to reassess priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.

The primary reasons for the shifts vary by division. But collectively, they reflect Apple’s efforts to transition from an iPhone-driven company into one where growth flows from services and potentially transformative technologies.

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“This is a sign the company is trying to get the formula right for the next decade,” said Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst and managing partner at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures. “Technology is evolving, and they need to continue to tweak their structure to be sure they’re on the right curve.”

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Apple spent $14.24 billion on research and development last year, a 23% increase from the year prior. Though it continues to work on projects in the augmented reality, autonomous vehicle and health sectors, it hasn’t yet released a major new product in those areas. Sales of its latest gadgets—Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod—have been mixed, and none have offered the pricing power or volumes of the iPhone, one of the best-selling products in history.

Mr. Cook, who prides himself on his long-term management focus, has been anticipating the maturation of the smartphone industry since as early as 2010 and planning for how to grow as phone sales slow, former employees say. Apple this year stopped reporting the number of iPhones it sells, a move many observers interpreted as an end of the smartphone salad days.

Though the iPhone still contributes about two-thirds of Apple sales, the company has encouraged investors to focus on a growing services business, which includes streaming-music subscriptions, app-store sales and mobile payments. Services are expected to top $50 billion in sales by fiscal 2020 and contribute more than about 60% of Apple’s total revenue growth over five years, according to Morgan Stanley , which estimates the iPhone fueled 85% of growth during the prior five years.

Benefits of AR from Wall Street Journal

Benefits of AR -- and why business is going to clamor for these?

Save a lot of money with a relatively small investment.

Wall Street Journal

MR. FOWLER: How are businesses using these?

MR. OSTERHOUT: The huge applications that are killers are telemaintenance, telepresence, telerepair. Being able to see anything anywhere and understand what it is.

For example, we were at Pepsi’s headquarters, and Pepsi got a call that their big German facility went down. They have multiple banks of machines, and when one of those machines goes down, it costs $1 million a day.

They had bought glasses, so they told the guys in Germany to turn them on. That allowed Pepsi’s people in the U.S. to see what the engineer in Germany was seeing when he went out on the line to investigate. The guys in the U.S. could say: “What you need to do is reset the breakers. Do this.” They could give instructions because they could see what [the engineer] was seeing halfway around the world in real-time. That’s killer.

Masayoshi Son, Japanese executives and Risk

Masayoshi Son has been busy for a long time in tech, but really got some attention when going for ARM holdings this week.

Worth digging around about him. It seems to me that if there ever were a guy who would enthusiastically jump into Microvision, it would be this guy.

He's a risk-taker in risk-averse Japan & Risk averse big business. 

He's of Korean ancestry in Japan. This is quite significant in Japan - even though most outside of Japan don't realize it. He's not really on the inside in Japan -- but not really on the outside -- and the restraining parts of the Japanese culture aren't restraining him. (I'm sure I'll get a note correcting this if I've misstated any of this. DF?)

He understands Japan and the "weird" in Japan. Check out the ad.

What is here is a guy who knows capital. A guy who is willing to risk -- and sometimes lose - which is really important. If it's a sure thing, there isn't any risk, but precious little upside as well. We also have a guy who studies the future and gets it right. 

Microvision is a significant part of the future of portable computing, entertainment & the internet of things. 

Those industries have a huge problem - getting large displays from small devices -- and Microvision is the answer to that problem.

From Financial Times

Critically, say analysts, Mr Son embraces risk with skin in the game: a 19.2 per cent stake in SoftBank that is both stick and carrot to his bravura dealmaking. By contrast, the rest of corporate Japan — increasingly led by a generation of salaryman chief executives who hold minuscule quantities of stock and have risen to their positions by avoiding risk wherever possible — does not do very much of that.

Some larger, cash-rich Japanese companies, following pressure from shareholders, have started to become more proactive in looking abroad for long-term growth and a higher return on equity. They logged a record ¥10tn of outbound M&A deals in 2015. Even so, it was an improvement rather than an outright transformation. Those outbound deals were fairly conservative, led by the insurance and banking sectors looking for large, bolt-on businesses in dependable, developed parts of the world. The scale of the deals — modest by global standards — demonstrated a reluctance on the part of acquirers fundamentally to reshape themselves.

From Wall Street Journal

While companies such as Intel Corp. design and manufacture chips, ARM is strictly a designer. It charges licensing fees and per-chip royalties to other companies that use its schematics. Customers such as Apple Inc., Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics Co. began flocking in the past decade to ARM-based chips because they drew less power than competing chips from the likes of Intel, which made high-performance but energy-guzzling processors.

Yahoo News

"A fresh acquisition is not what the market wants from SoftBank," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management.

"It's Mr. Son's style to keep expanding, but isn't he stretching too much?"

Investors fret the purchase of ARM, Japan's largest ever outbound deal, may be too much for SoftBank, still in the throes of turning around U.S. carrier Sprint <S.N> and tackling a $112 billion debt pile.

Others take the longer view.

"There is little synergy with SoftBank's existing businesses, but it makes sense if we look at ARM's future potential," said Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities Co.

"Mr. Son is prioritizing investment for the future over shoring up the balance sheet. It's very Mr. Son-like."

A self-made entrepreneur whom one investment banker described as thinking "in decades", Son, of Korean descent, has long been something of an outsider in corporate Japan.

He wears the somber suits of Japan's salarymen but is an outspoken sometimes outrageous voice, with a celebrity status and 2.5 million followers on Twitter.

Son said he sealed the deal in just two weeks with a handful of advisers. These include Jeffrey Sine, co-founder of niche U.S. merchant bank Raine, who has advised Son for years.

Weird Favorite TV Ad, (HotTopics,

Japan’s favorite TV ad series features a family who sit around bickering and occasionally mentioning the merits of the tariffs offered by mobile network SoftBank.

So far, so ordinary. Mobile operators love to feature regular people and trumpet the joy of communication with bland phrases about being ‘better connected’ and having a ‘world that revolves around you’.

But in the Softbank commercials, the grown up Japanese daughter has a brother who is apparently an American black man. And their father is, well, a white dog.

No one in the ads ever remarks on the weirdness of this.

It’s all very droll, slightly weird and joyfully eccentric.

And wildly popular. Indeed, Japan’s CM Research Center, which conducts TV ad recall surveys says SoftBank’s ‘Otosan’ ads (Otosan is Japanese for father) have topped most of its polls for the last five years — and earned the firm’s ‘Brand of the Year’ prize every year from 2007 to 2011.

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Son loved to buy and sell, throwing money into 600 technology companies, including GeoCities, Ziff-Davis Publishing and the Comdex computer show. Some of these bets went disastrously wrong, such as Kingston Technologies, which lost Softbank $1 billion.

Others did better.

Ziff-Davis’s chief executive, Eric Hippeau, introduced Son to a struggling small company called Yahoo, which wanted $5 million to develop its search engine tech. Famously, Masayoshi Son offered $100 million. Yahoo founder Jerry Yang replied that they didn’t need that much. To which Son countered: “Everyone needs $100 million.”

Thus, Softbank owned more than one-third of Yahoo when it went public in April 1996.

And Masayoshi Son was similarly prescient about Alibaba, offering a big sum to its CEO Jack Ma when he hadn’t even asked for it. As a result, Softbank got a third of Alibaba – a stake worth $75bn on the day the Chinese giant IPOd last month.

SoftBank’s $20 million investment in Alibaba back in 2000 probably ranks as one of the greatest ever.

Why we're Jealous of Chinese Smartphones

Better innovation and faster turnover in China. 

Wall Street Journal -- more at the source

Phones are TVs

In China, phones aren’t second-class citizens when it comes to watching shows and movies.

The best stuff is mostly available to stream online. China’s historic challenges with protecting intellectual property have helped the market invent new business models for media. Services like Youku Tudou, iQiyi and Tencent Video convinced many piracy-stricken content owners to join, rather than fight, the demand for online video by making it legitimate and getting paid for it through video advertisements. If you pay, you watch without ads.

Chinese can legally watch recent episodes of “Game of Thrones” free on a video site owned by Tencent, though censors make it considerably less exciting than what Americans see on HBO.

Now China’s online video services are even producing 360-degree virtual reality shows designed for the mobile world. We’re not holding our breath for U.S. TV producers to invest in a VR version of “The Big Bang Theory” anytime soon.

They Don't See it -- but we do.

Apple suffers slowing sales. Apple suppliers take hit -- why? Because they don't see anything new.

It's not about the device -- it's about having a huge display you can fit in your pocket. That's what MicroVision offers. 

People don't buy things, they buy the benefits the things bring them. PicoP is all benefit.

From the Wall Street Journal     Much more at the source.

Apple Inc.’s slowing sales are reverberating along the supply chain in Asia with iPhone component makers reporting weak earnings and cautious forecasts.

The latest results mark the end of an era of easy growth for not only Apple, but for the multibillion-dollar global supply chain that makes iPhones and other gadgets.

As smartphone growth slows with the sector’s maturation, suppliers say that they don’t see another product category on the immediate horizon that can be a major growth driver.

“We are all closely watching new areas, like the Internet of Things and automotive electronics,” said Charles Lin, chief financial officer of Pegatron Corp., a secondary iPhone assembler for Apple based in Taiwan. “But so far there is nothing nearly approaching the scale of smartphones.”

Electronics suppliers went through a similar challenge when the personal computer market slowed, said UBS analyst Arthur Hsieh.The companies made a relatively easy transition to making smartphones, after the first iPhone was launched in 2007.

This time, it isn’t yet clear what the next growth driver will be, with new technologies such as virtual reality, smartcars and Internet-connected appliances all appearing promising, but still early-stage, he said.

“We are in a transition period,” Mr. Hsieh said.

Sharp - Foxconn Decision in Next Two Weeks

Watching this deal unfold... We probably won't know anything different or new until the deal is done in a couple of weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal

TAIPEI—A decision on a takeover of Sharp. Corp. by Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group will be announced in two weeks, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said, saying he had just finished three days of discussions with the Japanese tech company.

Sharp is considering bids from Foxconn and Innovation Network Corp. of Japan. Foxconn last month raised its offer to ¥659 billion ($5.5 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. That compares with an offer from INCJ that these people say is worth no more than ¥300 billion.

Mr. Gou declined to comment on the discussions, saying the companies had agreed to a quiet period until the end of the month. He also declined to comment on reports that some Sharp board members who favor Foxconn’s bid may be excluded from the final vote.

“I can say that 99.9% of reports out there are speculation or rumors purposefully made up that are very different from the real situation, that is all I can say,” Mr. Gou told reporters.

Foxconn deal having an effect in India

Chinese Phones to hit US / Phones are TVs

Tech that will change your life in 2016

From the Wall Street Journal --- The below straight from the article.

Chinese Phones Hit the U.S.

Chinese smartphones are big globally, but little-known to U.S. shoppers obsessed with Apple and Samsung. In 2016, expect Chinese brands that don’t just undercut on price, but bring features from China’s thriving mobile culture. Huawei, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, made the $449 Nexus 6P and has declared its intention for a U.S. launch of its flagship Mate 8, which also has a metal body, fingerprint scanner and large battery. Letv, a brand created by known as the “ Steve Jobs of China,” is also poised for a big U.S. splash. Then the ball’s in the court of the enormously valued startup Xiaomi, which has downplayed U.S. launch plans.

How to get ready: If you’re on the fence about buying a new Android phone right now, hold off. At the very least, don’t sign a service contract that ties you to a handset.

from a different wsj article...
Phones are TVs -- (Why we're jealous of Chinese Smartphones)

In China, phones aren’t second-class citizens when it comes to watching shows and movies.

The best stuff is mostly available to stream online. China’s historic challenges with protecting intellectual property have helped the market invent new business models for media. Services like Youku Tudou, iQiyi and Tencent Video convinced many piracy-stricken content owners to join, rather than fight, the demand for online video by making it legitimate and getting paid for it through video advertisements. If you pay, you watch without ads.

Chinese can legally watch recent episodes of “Game of Thrones” free on a video site owned by Tencent, though censors make it considerably less exciting than what Americans see on HBO.

Now China’s online video services are even producing 360-degree virtual reality shows designed for the mobile world. We’re not holding our breath for U.S. TV producers to invest in a VR version of “The Big Bang Theory” anytime soon.

New About SONY

Interesting news from SONY today, the newest news from an out of the way place.

First, from a review of the SONY FMPX10 4K Ultra HD Media Player: Here's a KEY bit of information we should pay attention to:

From 4K.com

"he final awesome feature of the FMP X10. In addition to the streaming content options it offers, this particular device also delivers access to Sony’s huge Video Unlimited 4K content library. We’re talking about hundreds of hours of 4K UHD feature content, movies, documentaries and other programming, all available for downloading and with a number of the most popular movie titles available pre-loaded to get you started watching and seeing the content quality in native 4K right out of the box."

If they include content with their devices, this will be a superb perk for new owners of PicoP devices when they start including memory (either included in a phone, game system sled, or stand-alone device.) I'm quite confident that a device like MPCL1 that includes a TV tuner (streaming & on air) and memory (like a TiVO) included will happen soon. Only because it makes so much sense to do so. When it does, it could come loaded with a lot of SONY content.  [ I've been saying this for a while, go back here: "Thoughts on Apple TV" & "Sony TV Tuner"

SONY CEO at Wall Street Journal (More at the article)

"MR. BAKER: You think one of your core growth areas is going to be making parts for phones and cameras and various other things.

MR. HIRAI: Indeed. We’ve always had cutting-edge image-sensor technology, both in terms of the technology of the sensors themselves, as well as the manufacturing that goes into it. And we have the No. 1 market share. We’ve had that for a long time. And we want to make sure that that’s part of a strategy for continued growth of Sony."

PicoP is a nice part for a phone or a camera...

Sony buys Toshiba Image Sensor Business

TOKYO—Sony Corp. is likely to strengthen its image sensor business by acquiring a competing arm from Toshiba Corp., people familiar with the matter said Saturday.

Rethink Wireless

Whatever the future of this activity, Sony is certainly shifting its emphasis to areas where it has greater competitive strength, including displays and various types of sensor chips. Hence the reported bid for the Toshiba unit, which Bloomberg sources said would cost it ¥20bn ($165m). Toshiba is looking to raise case after a recent accounting scandal removed $1.3bn from its profit figure since 2008.

Sony supplies CMOS smartphone imaging chips to Apple and Samsung, among others, and is the market leader with about 40% share of the $8.7bn pie. It is pushing this expertise into other devices, such as gaming consoles and wearables, too, as the sector looks set to grow sharply to about $12bn by 2019.

Sony is targeting a revenue increase of 62% by 2018, which would bring in ¥1.5 trillion. Acquiring Toshiba's unit would add about 100,000 units a month and up to ¥70bn in additional sales, and operating income of up to ¥20bn, according to estimates by SMBC Nikko Securities. Toshiba supplies CMOS image sensors to Microsoft, HTC, LG and Nikon, among others. The most important element of its dowry would be its plant in Oita, which would increase Sony's output capacity - seen recently as a potential brake on its growth.

And also posted recently

SONY to Build new smartphone factory

Micromax: A Company to Watch Closely

This company produces new phones quickly. They take chances. They're innovative.

Of course, at a rate this fast, producing a PicoP product, separate from their phones seems to validate the "stand alone first" strategy of MicroVision management.

There's a lot more at the original article.


At Wall Street Journal


Early last year, product planners at India’s best-selling phone maker decided consumers wanted a handset that could be operated in many of the country’s 20-plus official languages.

Four months later, Micromax Informatics Ltd. unveiled the $110 Unite, which let users label their apps, type, send messages and interact on social media in 21 different scripts—from Marathi and Gujarati to Tamil—rather than just English and Hindi, as is common for Indian phones.

“We turn around faster than any other company,” said Micromax Chief Executive Vineet Taneja,as he reviewed mock-up models of more than 10 phones in the company’s buzzing Delhi headquarters.

Micromax sits at the bleeding edge of the global smartphone wars.

While Apple Inc. launches only two new iPhone models a year and Xiaomi around four, Micromax shipped more than 30 new smartphones last year ranging in price from $50 to more than $300—as well as a host of no-frills feature phones.

Micromax cuts language barrier



The most unique feature of Unite 3 would be, a user can easily translate or transliterate (change the script of the text) on the phone.

The awaited technology would be as simple as just swiping the screen on the phone which would perform the former operation within a few seconds.