Apple, Google Locked in Battle for Supremacy

Apple, Google Locked in Battle for Supremacy

india   02:15:00

At the top of the corporate world, Apple and Google are in a back-and-forth battle to be number one.

It's not clear which of the two Silicon Valley giants will emerge on top in a contest which highlights the contrast of very different business models.

For a brief time early this year, Google parent Alphabet overtook Apple as the world's largest company by market value.

Apple then regained, lost and recovered the leader position in May in a battle that appears set to continue for some time.

At the close Friday, Apple was worth some $522 billion (roughly Rs. 35,13,852 crores), to $496 billion (roughly Rs. 33,38,832 crores) for Alphabet.

The two companies have both been hugely profitable in recent years, for different reasons.

Apple has delivered a line of must-have iPhones and other gadgets that have set trends around the world but now "appears to be a little bit immobile," says Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Apple shares have slumped some 30 percent over the past 12 months over concerns that its stunning growth pace is slowing and that the iPhone won't be able to rake in profits as it has up to now.

Finding next thing
Kay said Apple may be losing the position of innovation leader it achieved after the iPhone, with no new major hit products coming.

"They haven't really changed the nature of the game," Kay said.

"The (Apple) Watch came in, it was kind of interesting, people liked it... but developers are still searching for exactly how to use it."

Google, meanwhile, been evolving from a pure search engine to a leader in mobile with its Android operating system.

And it has at the same time been investing in "moonshots" - grand ventures that may have potential such as self-driving cars, fiber networks and Internet balloons.

Google "has positioned itself well, through organic investments and acquisitions, for most of the major trends in consumer Internet: mobile, video, local," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note.

Kay said the Android system which powers some 80 percent of mobile handsets is a valuable franchise that helps Google's mobile advertising efforts.

"The narrative that has boosted Google is the one about technology innovation and being at the wellhead of various important technologies," Kay said.

"That may or may not finally pay off. But they're looking. They're using their money to try to find innovative things to make the next big thing, whatever it is."

For Apple, a key moment will come later this year with the expected unveiling of its iPhone 7, a test on whether it can keep up its innovation and entice consumers to trade up.

The two companies have a virtual duopoly on the smartphone market, but Apple makes its own hardware and software while Google provides only the free Android software for handsets, including many made by low-cost manufacturers.

Showing intelligence
Google has been taking pains to show off its software and artificial intelligence.

At its just-concluded developer conference, Google unveiled a virtual home assistant as well as an upgraded messaging platform.

Google claims it is ahead of its rivals in artificial intelligence, and cites as proof its victory in the ancient game of Go by its supercomputer AlphaGo.

And Google also has shown its interest in virtual reality, adapting its upcoming version of Android to deliver more lifelike images, which could help in its battle against Apple.

But few are ready to count out Apple, which is known for keeping its research efforts secret, and which has a massive cash stockpile of some $233 billion (roughly Rs. 15,68,658 crores).

Apple is widely believed to be working on some automobile project, and recently announced a $1 billion investment in Chinese ride hailing app Didi Chuxing, the bitter rival of US-based Uber.

Apple also moved to expand its global footprint by announcing plans for a development office in Hyderabad, India and a new app design center in Bengaluru.

Even with Apple's share price in a slump, billionaire Warren Buffett disclosed he had taken a $1 billion stake, suggesting the shrewd investor sees Apple as undervalued.

The research firm Trefis said the latest Apple investment in Didi "signals that the company could get more creative" in using its vast financial resources.

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From arrogance to servility: Apple’s U-turn in India

From arrogance to servility: Apple’s U-turn in India

Tim Cook   02:07:00

In September 2014, Apple launched the much-awaited iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. The new phones were launched in 10 countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia, on the same day. But as has been the case for over a decade, Apple neither launched the two devices in India nor announced a date by which the smartphones would be made available in the country.

The company’s fans in the country purchased the phones in the grey market for anywhere between Rs100,000 to Rs200,000—around five times the official price in the US.

India was definitely not high on Apple’s radar till a few years ago. “I love India but I believe that Apple has higher potential…in some other countries. That doesn’t mean we’re not interested in India—we are. We’re going to continue putting some energies there, but in the intermediate term there will be larger opportunities elsewhere,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in July 2012.

But over the recent months, India has become a promising market for the American tech giant. While announcing the company’s quarterly earnings on April 26, Cook called India a “really great opportunity.” “We’ve been working (in India) with great energy over the last 18 months or so, and I am encouraged by the results that we’re beginning to see there,” Cook said during the company’s earnings call.

And, less than a month later, Cook made his first official trip to the world’s second largest smartphone market.

New love

Until recently, Apple was just playing in the premium smartphone segment in India, which is around 4% of the overall market as per some estimates. Now, the company desperately wants to sell more affordable, refurbished phones, which would drastically improve its sales in a price-sensitive India. So far, it has failed to get an approval for the same from the government.

Despite regulatory restrictions, India is among the top priorities for Apple going forward, Cook said in an interview to television channel NDTV. The company is now approaching India “very humbly” and hoping to stay in the market for a “thousand years,” he said.

On the first day of Cook’s trip, Apple announced the setting up of a mobile apps accelerator in Bengaluru by early 2017. On the next day, Cook inaugurated Apple’s new office in Hyderabad. The company will hire up to 4,000 new employees at this office, Apple said.

Even tough the company did not announce the exact amount of investments in the two new facilities, Cook told NDTV that Apple would spend “several hundred million dollars” on the Hyderabad office and the Bengaluru centre would also be a “major investment.”

Cook also met several Indian business leaders, including senior executives of Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Tata Group. He engaged with the country’s booming technology startup industry and visited the office of online restaurant discovery startup Zomato. The Apple boss even found the time to visit an Indian temple, attend a Bollywood party and watch a cricket match.

However, the lack of investment numbers disappointed some commentators. “I will call it a great exploration effort, and do not see any immediate results,” Vishal Tripathi, research director at Gartnertold IANS. “I won’t call his visit a wow factor at this moment.”

Slowing China

Cook’s trip to Asia came at a time when Apple’s growth is slowing in its second-largest market China, and rising sharply in India. In the company’s second quarter, revenue from China fell for the first time ever, while it rose by 56% in India.

India is now touted as the next China for Apple. However, Cook said there was no connection between the two developments.

“It (plan for India) has nothing to do with China,” Cook told NDTV. “India is different than China. India is a different place and we are going into India very humbly. We’ve been selling here for a while as you know, but we are taking a step back in viewing India strategically and I do believe that the reforms that are going in India, means that India has an enormously bright future and we would like to be a part of that.”

During the second quarter of 2016, Apple’s revenue in China stood at$12.5 billion (pdf). In comparison, India is a minuscule fraction of the company’s business. The company does not even break down its revenue for India and according to some estimates, the country makes for less than 1% of Apple’s overall sales. And while Apple made no big bang announcements in India, Cook made a massive $1-billion investment in a local ride-hailing service, Didi Chuxing.

But the secretive company seems to be waiting for the right time to start making big bets on Asia’s third largest economy.

“You know I came here to learn about the people and the culture and how business is done and what people are interested in and their hopes and aspirations,” Cook told NDTV. “I’m leaving with more knowledge.”

iPhone sales surge 56% in India as Apple eats into Samsung's high-end share

iPhone sales surge 56% in India as Apple eats into Samsung's high-end share

samsung   06:13:00

In spite of set up players like Samsung and Intex commanding the biggest shares of the Indian market at present, Apple keeps on developing, with deals up 56 percent year over year, as indicated by the most recent information from Canalys. As second quickest developing seller in the main ten cell phone suppliers in the nation, Apple has now begun to test Samsung's strength in the premium business sector.

As far as aggregate piece of the overall industry for gadgets valued over $300 U.S., Apple has developed from 11 percent in the main quarter of 2015 to 29 percent toward the begin of 2016. That prompted huge misfortunes for opponent Samsung, which saw its offer tumble from 66 percent to 41 percent over the same range.

"Apple is beating the general business sector in India, and still has incredible development potential," said Canalys Mobility expert Wilmer Ang.

Apple saw its first-ever year-over-year decrease in iPhone deals last quarter, hurt specifically by China, where absolute deals were off 26 percent. Be that as it may, Apple's Cook trusts the alleged "fate and unhappiness" among financial specialists was a tremendous overcompensation.

Rather, Cook has turned his sights toward developing interest in India. This week, in an appearance on Jim Cramer's "Distraught Money," Apple's CEO noticed that 50 percent of the populace is matured 25 or more youthful, and those clients have demonstrated enthusiasm for purchasing the best items accessible.

What's more, in Apple's most recent quarterly profit telephone call, Cook brought up how deals in India were up essentially and that Apple would put "expanding accentuation" in these business sectors where there is huge development.

"With just 42 percent cell phone infiltration of the worldwide handset advertise today, iPhone is as yet pulling in a huge number of first-time cell phone purchasers every quarter, particularly from developing markets. For instance, in India our iPhone deals were up 56 percent from a year back," Cook said.

The rollout of quicker LTE systems in 2016 are likewise anticipated that would offer more noteworthy development open doors for the iPhone.

Reasonableness of a premium brand is still a driving component of offers in a cost-delicate cell phone market. Apple's aggregate business sector entrance is still under 2 percent in India. In any case, on account of various value cuts, Apple's iPhone 5s still turned into the most prominent Apple gadget in India, even with a littler screen and obsolete equipment.

Apple's endeavor to facilitate develop this business sector has confronted a few difficulties with government bans on importing utilized iPhones available to be purchased. The organization's solicitations have been turned down twice, showing both a hesitance with respect to the Indian government to import outside cell phones in lieu of neighborhood assembling, and resistance from business sector heavyweights like Intex, Micromax and Samsung.

Canalys, a worldwide knowledge and information examination organization for the IT business, expects that merchants will start banding together with budgetary foundations to make cell phones more moderate and energize development in the Indian business sector.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, Cook communicated trust in Apple's capacity to develop its business sector in India, the third biggest cell phone market on the planet. While the cell phones being used so far have been principally low end because of financial aspects and system abilities up till now, Cook said he sees India like "China was perhaps seven to ten years prior" and that "there's a truly extraordinary open door there."