Eastly - Issue #4 | Greater Mobility – Across All Areas? 🏃
By Eastly.co | Asia Tech News • Issue #4
Eastly: Asia Tech News Direct From The Source
Welcome to Eastly, your weekly infusion of all the top tech stories from the world’s innovation powerhouse: East Asia!
Every Sunday we’ll bring you a short, sharp roundup of the biggest stories our team in China have spotted – the kind of stuff that takes a few weeks for the Western media to notice.
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From faster charging handsets to new 5G chips; China's smartphone market seems to keep accelerating at a rate of knots. Not only that, but bigger players are moving into new tech ventures too.
ZTE Announces 'Breakthrough' 5G Chip
Chips Ahoy: ZTE's 7nm line is ready to ship – but who's buying?
Date: 14 July, 2020
ZTE, one of China's telecom equipment manufacturers, has announced that a new generation of 7nm chips have reached mass production and are ready to be deployed across 5G networks globally.
Along with China's other major telecoms company, Huawei, ZTE has been at the centre of much criticism from the American government, after it was found to be in breach of US economic sanctions. Despite promises to reform its compliance approach, last month the US Federal Communications Commission designated ZTE a national security threat – barring it from owning any American subsidies.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/792409806145288
Xiaomi Impresses With New Consumer Tech
Take your pick: Xiaomi's lifestyle gadgets grow
Date: 15 July, 2020
Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi has officially unveiled a suite of new lifestyle gadgets that are sure to impress this summer – not least given their price compared to competitor products.
Offerings include new iterations of the brand's wearable and transportation devices – the Mi Smart Band 5 and Electric Scooter Pro 2 respectively – as well as a 34-inch curved gaming monitor, the Mi TV Stick, and the all-too aesthetically familiar Mi True Wireless Earphones 2.
Luckin CTO Jumps Ship To Boba Tea Firm
Tea for He? CTO trades coffee company for boba brand
Date: 17 July, 2020
He Gang, the former Chief Technology Officer of Luckin Coffee (China's answer to Starbucks) has recently joined popular boba tea brand, Naixue Tea, in the same capacity.
Naixue, which has thousands of stores across China, applied for an IPO some months ago, but withdrew the application in the wake of COVID-19. Now, with He Gang's vast, financial, operations, supply chain, tech experience, the company is getting plans back on track.
Source: https://36kr.com/p/797511942349827
Chinese Firms Winning Fast Charge Phone Wars
Guilty as 'charged' – new handsets could take just 15 mins to fully replenish power
Date: 17 July, 2020
Over the past week, several Chinese smartphone manufacturers – OPPO, vivo, iQOO, and Realme – have announced a slew of faster changing handsets.
With top performers able to charge handsets from zero to 100 in just 15 minutes, these 120W and 125W phones are some of the fastest charging phones seen so far – across all markets.
Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/U3EGh8wl4suGxXlYBXW5CQ
Xiaomi Halves Handset Prices For Korea
Xiaomi has sights set on South Korea
Date: 18 July, 2020
On July 17, Xiaomi officially launched a 5G mobile phone in South Korea: the Mi 10 Lite 5G. As an attempt to take on stiff competition from homegrown smartphone brands – Samsung and LG – Xiaomi's offering the new models for around half the price of its main rivals: just 451,000 won, compared to 900,000 won.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20200718/20200718A05J0M00.html
Notes:
ZTE: One of China's leading telecom equipment manufactures, ZTE has been the subject of surveillance concerns. The company was also fined for illegally exporting US technology to Iran and North Korea in 2017.
Asia Markets
VC firm Wavemaker sees opportunities in Southeast Asia
Markets Summary: https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/world-indexes/asia-pacific
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Thank you all for reading and see you next Sunday!
Yours, Eastly
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