Apple recovered ground on Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor in Q4 2019, as lower pricing of its iPhone 11 range spurred healthy demand in North America and Asia, Strategy Analytics stated.

The research company said the vendor shipped 70.7 million units during the quarter, some 4.8 million more than Q4 2018, with Samsung relegated to second place on 68.8 million units despite what Strategy Analytics noted had been good growth across all price points.

Huawei placed third, with shipments down 7 per cent to 56 million due to a slowdown in China, its biggest market, and tougher competition in key overseas markets including Europe. Domestic rival Xiaomi came in fourth, with success in Western Europe and a steady performance in India contributing to shipments of 33 million, 7 million higher than Q4 2018.

Oppo rounded out the top five by shipments on 30.5 million units, a dip from 31.5 million in the 2018 period.

Total shipments in the quarter of 374.5 million units were down from 376 million in Q4 2018.

The pattern was similar across the full year, with 1.41 billion units shipped down marginally on 1.43 billion in 2018, with “sharp declines” in China balanced by strong growth in emerging markets in Africa and India.

Strategy Analytics noted Samsung maintained its leading position in full year shipments on 295.1 million units, followed by Huawei (240.5 million); Apple (197.4 million); Xiaomi (124.8 million); and Oppo (115.1 million).

The research company’s figures showed Apple and Oppo were the only top-five vendors to see declines in full year shipments.

Source: www.mobileworldlive.com

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) approved Airtel Kenya’s acquisition of rival operator Telkom Kenya, a move which would step up competition against market leader Safaricom.

CAK director general Wang’ombe Kariuki outlined conditions for the acquisition in The Kenya Gazette, the government’s official publication, stating Airtel Kenya cannot sell the merged entity for the next five years and must fulfil all existing contracts with government entities.

In a move to safeguard jobs, CAK demanded 349 of Telkom Kenya’s 674 employees be retained after the acquisition. Two-thirds must be employed for a minimum of two years, with the rest to be absorbed by network partners. Telkom Kenya stated in August it would make 575 of its staff redundant as a result of the acquisition.

One last hurdle for the merger is an investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which already delayed the process.

Prior to the probe, a committee in Kenya’s National Assembly said the deal had “all the hallmarks of a scandal” noting it enabled private individuals to acquire a public company “through the backdoor for a song”.

The merger of the second- and third-largest operators in Kenya was announced in February: the new company would be called Airtel-Telkom.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey revealed plans to establish an independent team to create a standard all social media companies could use to tackle harmful speech and posts, at a time of growing concern over misuse of the platforms.

In a series of tweets, the executive said the company would fund a five-person group to create rules similar to the SMTP protocol for email, with the goal of enabling multiple social media platforms to filter and block specific types of content.

The team will be named Bluesky, which will initially be helmed by Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal.

Dorsey said there is a need for social media to change the way content is handled, noting current set-ups focus too heavily on “conversation that sparks controversy and outrage” instead of messages promoting health.

In Twitter’s case, such an approach would enable it to “access and contribute to a much larger corpus of public conversation”, while also forcing it to be “far more innovative than in the past”.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

MTN Business Namibia, a provider of connectivity solutions, remains committed to transforming its business in the country to offer mobile services. It’s been two and a half years since the company was engaged in this operation.

In order to calm the potential concerns of its partners, it wanted to inform them of the progress of the process. A meeting was organized for this purpose this week by Elia Tsouros, General Manager of MTN Business Namibia.

“It’s been two and a half years since planning continues. We have recently changed our strategy for greater control on our part. With additional CAPEX, we ensure customers the best possible experience. We will have a device with our own channels and we will also be franchising certain stores, but we have a comprehensive market strategy that serves both prepaid and postpaid services. We will ensure that by the time we get to the market everything is in place and that we can provide a service that Namibia will be proud of, “ said Elia Tsouros.

As a prelude to its entry into the mobile segment, MTN Business Namibia, which claims to have already received all regulatory approvals from the Namibian telecom market, also announces that it has also rolled out its LTE (4G) service on the coast and in Windhoek. .

“We have deployed two additional sites in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. We are deploying two additional sites in northern Namibia and we are going to expand in Swakopmund with additional infrastructure because of success in this region, and this is only this year. We will have 14 sites by the end of the year and we will continue deploying additional sites next year. For a company that had no infrastructure eight months ago, we will continue to invest in our own infrastructure and this will benefit all of Namibia, “ said Elia Tsouros.

Source: Agence Ecofin