The Japanese government would start investigating how Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google deal with Japanese smartphone makers, which could lead to tightening antitrust regulations, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information.
A government panel, which consists of officials, bureaucrats and external experts, would start the discussion this month as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android software stands at more than 90 percent of the Japanese smartphone market, the paper said.
The probe would include input from executives from domestic smartphone handset makers as well as manufacturers of smart speakers and personal computers, it said.
The panel would evaluate business dealings in Japan and whether they are conducted in a fair manner compared with cases overseas.
The government may step up antitrust regulations if the panel finds any issues from the probe, the paper said.
Separately, Samsung Electronics Co said it has not yet decided whether to suspend production of its new budget phone, in response to a report that the company has halted output of the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition because of a chip shortage.
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Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
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