ZTE Corp (中興通訊) is working with a European wireless carrier to introduce a smartphone built on software from Mozilla Corp this year, said Cheng Lixin (程立新), chief executive officer of ZTE’s US unit.
China’s second-biggest maker of phone equipment may also offer a device based on Mozilla’s Firefox mobile operating system in the US this year, Cheng said in an interview at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Mozilla is better known for its Firefox Web browser.
ZTE is seeking partnerships to offer devices with the new operating system to reduce its reliance on Google Inc’s Android system, which dominates the smartphone market with a 75 percent share of shipments, IDC said.
ZTE is expanding in mobile devices and cloud computing, where sales growth is faster than its traditional equipment business.
“We closely monitor the ecosystem and how it evolves,” Cheng said. “If that is ready and if consumer studies support that data, then we may launch one in US also this year.”
Deutsche Telekom AG, Sprint Nextel Corp and Telefonica SA have been developing an open mobile operating system powered by Mozilla to build a range of cheaper smartphones and take on Android.
Mozilla products vice president Jay Sullivan said the company is working with mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd and ZTE on devices.
Samsung Electronics Co, the largest seller of mobile phones, is also planning to start selling phones with a new, rival operating system, called Tizen, to reduce its reliance on Android.
Mozilla and ZTE could capture 1 percent of the mobile market this year, according to a recent Strategy Analytics report.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last