US President Barack Obama is considering ditching his BlackBerry for a rival mobile phone brand, in what would be a symbolic blow to the struggling Canadian handset maker.
The White House Communications Agency (WHCA), which provides communications systems for the president and the secret service, is considering switching from the keyboard-based device that the US president has used since he was a US senator to a touchscreen handset. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, products by South Korean technology groups Samsung and LG are being considered.
For BlackBerry, the incursion of Samsung or LG into the White House would be the final fall from grace. The company has plummeted from its once-essential position among government and business users because of its encrypted e-mail system to become a lossmaking also-ran.
In November last year, it had to raise US$1 billion in debt financing after an attempt to engineer a sale failed and then-CEO Thorsten Heins was jettisoned in favor of industry veteran John Chen.
The company is due to announce its fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, having recorded net losses of US$5.5 billion over the previous three quarters on revenues of US$5.8 billion.
For Samsung or LG, a switch would be a huge publicity coup. Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer. Although Obama uses an Apple iPad for some activities, there is no indication that the WHCA is considering an iPhone for his use.
If Obama were to give up his BlackBerry, he would be following millions of Americans who have fallen out of love with what was once the most popular smartphone in the US. In September 2010, there were 21 million BlackBerry owners in the US — but by January this year, that had fallen to fewer than 5 million, according to research company ComScore.
Obama has been an affirmed BlackBerry user for at least a decade, but after becoming US president in 2008, he had to give it up briefly for a secure Sectera Edge phone specially created by the National Security Agency. That was quickly replaced by a customized BlackBerry with software called SecureVoice developed in conjunction with the agency.
BlackBerry said that for more than a decade, it had been securing the US government’s mobile communications.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS