Samsung’s Apple and Android Pay rival will launch in Europe next week May 25, 2016 Samsung is heading into battle with Apple and Google in the war for mobile tap and pay users by focusing on extras such as membership and loyalty schemes as it launches Samsung Pay in Europe for the first time. The Korean smartphone maker is facing stiff competition from Apple Pay which launched last year and Google’s Android Pay [...]
Microsoft is axing jobs in the aftermath of its Nokia sale May 25, 2016 Microsoft has announced it will slash 1,850 jobs as it moves to "streamline" its smartphone hardware business. Earlier this month the Redmond, Washington based software giant announced it would sell the Nokia handset business for a measly $350m (£238m) to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwanese gadget maker Foxconn. Microsoft acquired it business in 2014 for $7.2bn. Last year the company cut 7,800 jobs [...]
Are Apple’s glory days over? May 24, 2016 It has been among the most innovative companies in the world for decades, but Apple’s star has dimmed recently. It reported its first fall in sales since 2003 – before the iPhone even existed – and was overtaken as the world’s most valuable company again last week by Google’s parent Alphabet, after briefly surpassing it in [...]
Have women’s smartwatches just gone mainstream? There’s more to high-tech horology than the Apple Watch May 23, 2016 Bettridge’s Law states that if a headline ends in a question mark, then the answer is “no”. If that were always the case, then a column such as this would be a very short read indeed. But the question “can a stylish woman wear a smart watch?” is more complex than a simple “no”. A [...]
Phones 4U founder John Caudwell is backing this mobile startup May 23, 2016 Phones 4U founder John Caudwell has put his weight behind a new mobile startup launching today which aims to simplify buying a new mobile and do away with lengthy contracts. Unshackled.com will sell phones and sims separately and has partnered with peer-to-peer lender Zopa to offer financing for the upfront cost of the device. Founded by the former chief operating officer of Phones 4U [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open May 18, 2016 Japan avoids a recession and the oil price could be about to climb over $50 per barrel for the first time this year. Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 2:30pm London time. Markets look flat before the open. S&P futures are dead-centre, not even a point off. The Nasdaq is down by 0.01 [...]
The Nokia brand is as tough as the 3310 and is making a come back: Microsoft offloads Nokia handset business to Foxconn for $350m while Finnish company HMD picks up licences May 18, 2016 After Microsoft bought Nokia's handset business in 2014 we thought the 1990's icon Nokia would be gone from phone shops for good. Now it looks as though the brand is a tough as its famously indestructible 3310, after being revived by a sell off from software behemoth Microsoft. Microsoft, after just yesterday revealing its stance on Brexit, has passed on its mobile [...]
Britain sucked toward billion pound innovation funding Brexit black hole May 18, 2016 British business faces a billion pound funding black hole for research and development that risks leaving the nation trailing behind the rest of Europe when it comes to creating world leading technological and scientific innovation. More than a fifth of the UK’s £8bn competitive R&D funding in the last decade has come from Europe, but that [...]
Bacanora Minerals boss: 2020 will be a “magic” year for lithium May 17, 2016 The boss of one of the world's biggest lithium mines has singled out 2020 as a "magical" year for the so-called "white petroleum". Lithium forms a small but essentially irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries. It's currently used in small-scale devices such as mobile phones, but could eventually revolutionise the car industry, as well as how we use the [...]
What to Expect at Google I/O: Beyond mobile… and reality May 17, 2016 This week the eyes of the technology industry are all on Google’s annual developer conference – Google I/O occurring from 18-20 May. The first conference since the creation of Alphabet has a brand new outdoor home – Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco. While tech blogs are already awash with rumours, I’d like to share some areas to look [...]