Xiomi Mobile

Xiaomi, Oppo to use Qualcomm’s newest mobile phone chips

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a sign advertising Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

(Reuters) – Two fast-growing Chinese phone brands said on Tuesday that they will adopt Qualcomm Inc’s (QCOM.O) newest 5G chip in their flagship devices early next year.

Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) and Oppo said they will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chip in devices they plan to launch in the first quarter of next year. The companies planned to announce the news at a Qualcomm conference being held in Hawaii.

Xiaomi and Oppo, both based in China, were the fourth and fifth biggest smartphone sellers in the world in the third quarter, according to research firm IDC. They have also become major Qualcomm customers, with both Xiaomi and Oppo’s parent group each accounting for more than 10% of Qualcomm’s $24.2 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. Qualcomm’s other major customers are Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS).

Qualcomm planned to disclose the full details of its newest mobile phone processors at the event in Hawaii. The chip will include features for artificial intelligence tasks such as identifying objects in photos stored on smartphones, as well as a modem for connecting to 5G networks, which are rolling out this year and next and are expected to be much faster than current 4G networks.

Qualcomm also said that its Snapdragon 765 chip, which is priced lower than its 865 chip and is often found in midpriced handsets, will include 5G connectivity in an effort to popularize the technology on lower-priced phones.

In addition to selling the computing chips and modems for mobile phones, Qualcomm has also been trying to persuade phone makers to use more of its other components, such as antenna chips for connecting to 5G networks. To further that effort, Qualcomm on Tuesday announced it would start selling “modules” containing a number of different chips to phone makers.

The modules are intended to reduce the amount of time it takes phone brands to design a new device because Qualcomm will have already performed much of the engineering work and testing.

Qualcomm also said that it had worked with Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group (VOD.L) to certify that the modules will work on their carrier networks. Testing phones to ensure they will work on different carrier networks is one of the costliest and most time-consuming elements of bringing new phones to market, and Qualcomm said it is hoping to cut down on the time and expense involved for phone makers that use its chips.

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; editing by Jonathan Oatis02

Xiaomi’s new digital lending platform is a play to challenge Samsung in India

As part of its continued efforts to win over consumers in India, China-based smartphone-maker Xiaomi officially rolled out its personal lending service, dubbed Mi Credit, in the country, according to TechCrunch. Business Insider Intelligence

The Mi Credit app will come preinstalled on Xiaomi smartphones running an Android-based MIUI operating system and can also be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Mi Credit offers loans of up to Rs 100,000 ($1,393), with interest rates starting at 1.35% per month. Xiaomi joined hands with several banking and fintech firms as lending partners for the Mi Credit app. 

Xiaomi will rely on alternative phone data to build users’ credit profiles, which could prove attractive to India’s population. Mi Credit will rely on data from phone activity to create credit profiles on loan applicants, including information such as social relationships and brand loyalty, and it will also scan phone data to search for mentions of lifestyle changes.

This approach to building users’ credit profiles is part of Xiaomi’s goal to make the personal loan process quicker and more convenient. Mi Credit’s simple, digital-only application process with real-time approval should make it easier for users — especially those who don’t have a traditional credit score — to obtain credit, since the service has access to much more data than existing solutions in the market. 

Financial services represents a market outside of Xiaomi’s core business through which it can expand its hold on mobile consumers in India. Mi Credit is Xiaomi’s second Mi-branded financial solution: The company first moved into India’s financial space in March with its Mi Pay service, which facilitates bill payments and money transfers.

India is the company’s largest market outside of China, per comments from Xiaomi’s cofounder and SVP Hong Feng, and the company continues to rely on its mobile services for long-term profit over its devices. Since India boasts the highest fintech adoption rate in the world — 87% of consumers in India have adopted fintech solutions, compared with the global average of only 64%, per EY — Xiaomi likely sees its financial solutions as a prime way to boost its value to consumers within its ecosystem and expand its reach to consumers with non-Xiaomi smartphones.

Xiaomi’s launch of Mi Credit is also likely a play to challenge its chief rival in India — Samsung — which has already launched its own digital lending service. Xiaomi displaced Samsung as the No. 1 smartphone vendor in India by shipments in Q4 2017 — just two years after its entry in 2015 — and has held the title of leading vendor ever since. The Mi Credit launch comes two months after Samsung launched Samsung Finance Plus, which provides financing to purchase Galaxy smartphones.

But given India’s booming fintech market, we expect that Xiaomi’s move to offer a more rounded digital lending service will likely be more attractive to consumers in India, especially the 190 million who are without a bank account in the country. This could help Xiaomi increase the stickiness of its value proposition and sustain its dominance in the world’s second-largest, and fastest-growing smartphone market.

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Xiaomi, Oppo, Motorola, Nokia: Some of the first phones using Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 5G chips

© Provided by CNET Xiaomi Vice Chairman Bin Lin said the company’s next flagship smartphone, the Mi 10, will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chip and arrive in the first quarter. Shara Tibken/CNET

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon processors are here, and on Tuesday, at least four handset makers said they’ll be using them in upcoming phones in early 2020.

Motorola, Nokia phone maker HMD, Oppo and Xiaomi joined Qualcomm onstage at the Snapdragon Tech Summit to commit to using the Snapdragon 865 and 765 processors for new devices. 

Qualcomm introduced the new processors earlier Tuesday during a press conference in Hawaii. The Snapdragon 865 will be in premium smartphones. It doesn’t come with a modem, so phone makers that want to connect their devices to a 5G network must also buy Qualcomm’s X55 modem. But if phone makers want a single chip that acts as the brains of a device and connects to 5G, they can instead opt for Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 765 or 765G (the G stands for gaming) that use the slower X52 modem. The 765 and 765G processors will be aimed at less expensive smartphones than devices using the 865. 

© Shara Tibken/CNET

Xiaomi Vice Chairman Lin Bin said the company’s next flagship smartphone, the Mi 10, will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chip and arrive in the first quarter.

Xioami Vice Chairman Bin Lin said Tuesday that the high-end Snapdragon 865 will be in the company’s Mi 10 flagship phone in the first quarter of 2020. He didn’t give details about the phone but said many more 5G phones will follow in 2020.

“For the whole year next year, we will launch more than 10 devices running 5G, starting with premium tier, then midtier” and so forth, Lin said. 

Alen Wu, Oppo’s president of global sales, said his company also will release a premium flagship phone with the Snapdragon 865 in the first quarter, as well as introduce its Reno 3 Pro with the Snapdragon 765G.

“In 2020, there’s going to be a new wave of explosive growth of 5G phones,” Wu said through a translator.

Motorola, meanwhile, will use Qualcomm’s 865 and 765 processors, President Sergio Buniac said, though he didn’t provide details about any particular products. 

And HMD Product Chief Juho Sarvikas said Nokia “will deliver an affordable, next-generation 5G mobile phone” that still has premium features despite its lower price, thanks to the Snapdragon 765. The midrange phone will include a Zeiss camera, with UHD 4K video.

5G promises to significantly boost the speed, coverage and responsiveness of wireless networks. It can run 10 to 100 times faster than a typical cellular connection today, and it’ll also boost how fast a device will connect to the network, with speeds as quick as a millisecond to start your download or upload. Operators around the globe began rolling out their networks in 2019.