Smartphone maker News

Domestic smartphone-maker Karbonn on Thursday unveiled the "Aura Note 2" smartphone with an artificial intelligence (AI)-based solution at Rs 6,490.

Chinese smartphone-maker lephone on Monday launched its latest smartphone lephone W7 in India at Rs 4,599 that supports 22 regional languages.

If a slide from Nokia's Capital Markets Day 2016 is anything to go by, the one-time famous smartphone maker is planning to re-enter the business in 2017.

 Australian carriers Qantas and Virgin Australia told customers on Thursday not to use or charge Samsung`s Galaxy Note 7 during flights after faulty batteries in the new smartphone caused some handsets to explode.  

Smartphone maker Xolo will ramp up its 4G portfolio with handsets priced between Rs 4,500-10,000 over the next few months to cash in on the burgeoning demand for LTE-supporting devices following the commercial rollout of Reliance Jio's service.

The US government will give Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker ZTE Corp a three-month reprieve on tough export restrictions it imposed earlier this month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.  

Earlier this week, HTC had posted a loss of 8.0 billion Taiwanese Dollar (USD 252.7 million) for the second quarter as against a net profit of USD 2.26 billion in the same period, last year.

It said Samsung shipped 83.2 million smartphones worldwide and captured 24 percent market share in the quarter, down from 31 percent a year earlier but better than Apple`s 18 percent.

"Micromax is looking at beefing up investments in research and development of its products and services and so, getting a strategic investor on board makes sense," sources said.

Lenovo, one of China`s largest smartphone makers and the parent company of Motorola Mobility, will launch Windows-based smartphones this summer, Tong Fuyao, general manager of Lenovo China, said.

The tech giant said Thursday it recorded a net profit of 23.4 trillion won ($21.45 billion) in 2014, down 23.2 percent from a year ago and the first decline since 2011.

India will surpass the US as the second largest market for smartphones globally by 2016, helped by device makers offering affordable handsets, research firm eMarketer said.

China`s Xiaomi is raising over $1 billion from investors including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC that would value the smartphone maker at over $45 billion, a person familiar with the deal said.

If the deal happens, it would increase the possibility of thousands of former workers getting a chance at re-employment at the plant.

Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group has completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google Inc. In a move aimed at becoming a global smartphone brand.

Samsung said Friday it had reached a deal to buy a US home automation startup SmartThings, as the South Korean electronics giant aims to expand beyond the increasingly saturated smartphone market.

The company has completed various sales of real estate assets in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 as part of the CORE programme.

Samsung`s dividend payout ratio - or how much of its earnings it pays out in dividends - is 7.11 percent for the past 12 months.