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Showing posts with label Science and technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science and technology. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2019

Trump declares national emergency over threats against US technology amid campaign against Huawei, as China opposes

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/15/trump-signs-executive-order-targeting-huawei.html

Key Points 

  • President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said.

  • The move, done via executive order, is expected to precede a ban on U.S. firms doing business with the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.

  • The announcement comes as the U.S and China remain locked in a trade dispute.

Source link   
 

https://youtu.be/X05bmuEmxLE

China slams U.S. blacklisting of Huawei as trade tensions rise

Source link   


Huawei ban reflects 'Cold War mentality'

The latest ban on Huawei reflects Washington's dangerous Cold War mentality that will lead to further US-China decoupling, which is also casting a shadow over stalled trade talks between the two countries and will hurt the global tech industry, Chinese analysts said on Thursday.

Why Washington cannot contain Huawei

The US cannot strangle Huawei, nor will it be able to contain the development of China and deprive the 1.4 billion Chinese people of their development rights.



Related posts:



 
Punitive duties on US$200bil in goods raises stakes in trade talks .  https://youtu.be/82NLXvMtn64 Chinese Vice Premier Liu He arrive..


Huawei gaining support despite US ban

 

Year 2018 review: Huawei and the technology cold war, competition in spheres of influence



Huawei CFO arrest violates human rights as US takes aim at Huawei, the real trade war with China



From trade war to global anarchy?

 

Employees believe Huawei will survive widespread bans in West with ‘Wolf spirit’ culture


 

 Huawei unveils server chipset as China cuts reliance on imports

 

Why Huawei’s 5G technology is seen as a threat by the US

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

China’s private companies reaching for the stars

Lift-off: A security cordon is placed around the launch site of an OS-X suborbital rocket, which was developed by OneSpace Technology Group Co Ltd, in northwestern China last May. — China Daily
SATELLITES have become the latest gold mine for private companies in China as they rush to reach for the stars in the space sector.

The country’s satellite industry, which used to be dominated by state-owned enterprises, is gradually changing and opening to private players.

More than 90 Chinese start-ups, mostly focused on satellites or rockets, have taken their first steps in the space industry in the past four years, a senior industry expert from a Beijing-based satellite startup, who wished to remain anonymous, told China Daily based on the start-up’s internal research.

“It means that on average, nearly two startups were founded every month in the past four years in China. It is significant if China is to grab a slice of the cake from the global competition in the budding space industry,” he said.

According to The Space Report 2018 issued by The Space Foundation, the total market of the global space economy was US$384bil in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%. Of that, commercial activities accounted for more than 80%.

Industry experts pointed out that China only accounts for 3%-5% of the space economy globally, but the country is gaining ground fast in terms of both scale and technology.

Since 2014, Chinese authorities have launched policies and called for private players to actively participate in the country’s space industry.

Earlier, the National Development and Reform Commission, along with the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, also unveiled a 10-year blueprint to promote the commercial space sector.

LinkSure Network, a Chinese free internet access provider, announced a plan in November last year to launch China’s first Wi-Fi satellite in 2019.

It aims to send 272 satellites into space to provide free Wi-Fi globally by 2026. The first batch of investment will hit 3 billion yuan (US$447mil).

Similar to Elon Musk’s Starlink plan, the satellites will be used to expand internet coverage and boost internet speeds, the Shanghai-based internet firm said.

“The starting point of such a plan is to offer free internet connections to people around the world, especially those in underdeveloped areas or rough terrain,” said Wang Xiaoshu, rotating president of LinkSure Network.

The company, founded in 2013, became a unicorn – a startup valued at more than US$1bil – in 2015 by raising US$52mil in its A-round of financing.

“Satellite connection will be a great supplement to the ground network. The ground network, which relies on stations, has limitations due to, for example, weather and land form,” said An Yang, chief scientist of LinkSure’s satellite project.

“On a global scale, the number of satellites is far from meeting the huge demand for communication. The future of the communication sector must be a combination of space and ground,” he said.

Under the plan, revenue will come from services to high-end users as well as those provided to areas that the ground network is unable to reach, An said.

 
The space era: In this undated photo, An Yang, chief scientist of the satellite project at LinkSure Network, introduces the company’s satellite system at a news conference in Beijing. — China Daily

LinkSure is not the first. A string of startups have sent satellites into space for different purposes.

For instance, Guoxing Yuhang Co Ltd, or ADA Space, a private firm based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, launched two artificial intelligence satellites at the end of last year.

Though the country’s internet giants have not directly announced plans to develop, produce or launch satellites, they are showing a desire to do so.

Tech conglomerate Alibaba Group launched a communication satellite to support its online shopping gala last year while Baidu chief executive officer Robin Li said earlier that he hoped more support could be given to private companies in the civilian space segment.

Another tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd has also jumped on the bandwagon by investing in US startup Moon Express, which was founded in 2013 by a group of space entrepreneurs.

The US startup is looking to profit from the commercial space sector through leveraging core technologies including using drones to mine asteroids.

Compared with state-owned companies, private firms are better at commercialisation including attracting and using money and resources, which will greatly improve efficiency, said Yang Feng, chief executive officer of Spacety, a commercial aerospace company specialising in developing commercial micro and nano satellites.

“It is also a promising area that state-owned and private space companies can supplement and co-operate with each other,” he added.

Notably, some private players have also entered the overseas market. China Communication Technology Co Ltd in Shenzhen, a satellite-based communication services provider, has been beefing up its overseas presence to exploit foreign opportunities.

“We aim to extend our business to Africa this year and will tap into one or two Belt and Road economies each year,” said Wu Guangsheng, president of CCT.

CCT is currently offering services and products in the US, Europe, the Middle East and nine other countries and regions that are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2017, its overseas revenue was about 9 billion yuan, which made up more than 60% of the total.

It also plans to further explore South-East Asian markets including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and promote its products in Central Asian economies such as Kazakhstan.

Last year, the company entered the Philippines by acquiring G Telecoms Inc, the third-biggest telecom operator in the local market.

“In the past, we could only co-operate with local (telecom) carriers in foreign countries by selling our equipment to them. But with this big step, we can operate independently, be it launching our own satellites or providing data-related services,” Wu said.

The business could have huge potential as some 75% of the Philippines’ 100 million population are aged 25 or under and they have a voracious demand for communication services.

So far, CCT has received orders from civil aviation and public security departments in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In 2018, at least 15 private space companies disclosed their financing with the total amount estimated to reach more than 2 billion yuan, according to a report from 36Kr, a science and technology media group.

A report from China Money Network pointed out that seven private space companies had raised more than 1.66 billion yuan by August 2018.

MatrixPartners China, IDG Capital, China Growth Capital and Shunwei Capital were among the major investors.

Despite intensive capital support, industry insiders pointed out that there is still a long way to go for Chinese private firms to gain a lead.

For startups, money is still the bottleneck, said Jiang Yunwei, president of CITIC Juxin (Beijing) Co Ltd Capital Management, in a report.

“A company cannot earn money by launching a single satellite and the commercialisation of satellites needs a network of dozens of satellites, which costs a lot,” he said.

A satellite network requires at least 1.8 billion yuan to 2 billion yuan, according to Xie Tao, founder and chief executive officer of Beijing-based space startup Commsat Technology Development Co.

Facing such pressure, satellite startups are expected to address another challenge – to reduce the cost of developing and launching up satellites.

“Companies should change their approach of using costly accessories made only for space,” said Xie. “Private companies can leverage commercial components to replace expensive ones.

” Zhang Jiacheng, an investor in space startup OneSpace, agreed.

“China is still at the starting point in the commercial space sector. A well-rounded system needs to be established to offer space startups affordable and sustainable services.” — China Daily/Asia News Network

Related posts:

China launches satellite for space-based free Internet broadband and free wifi worldwide



Internet Protocol Version 9 第一代互联网 IPv9, Quantum Computing, AI and Blockchain: The Future of IT 

 

China successfully launched world's first quantum communication satellite 'very exciting' !

Chinese quantum satellite to protect China from cyber attacks https://youtu.be/iymqNogNxEg

China to build world-leading national laboratory for quantum information sciences



 

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

“There’s no way the US can crush Huawei”

https://youtu.be/vxoeLLq14zI
Ren Zhengfei: 'The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced' -

https://youtu.be/qxq6jNyF3Ik
https://youtu.be/1HVhWDL1QkE

Huawei has been under considerable pressure from the U.S., which has been convincing allies in Australia, the UK, and New Zealand to not use the company's 5G equipment due to security concerns.

Huawei founder speaks amid pressure: 'The U.S. can't crush us'



"There's no way the U.S. can crush us," Zhengfei told the broadcaster. "The world needs us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always scale things down a bit." 

 [Tap to expand] 

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei describes the arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, the company's chief financial officer, as politically motivated
The UK is set to make a decision on whether it will use Huawei's equipment in March or April, but the country's National Cyber Security Centre has reportedly found ways to "limit the risks" of its technology.

Ren said regardless of ban in the UK, Huawei will continue to invest in the country, and promised the company will increase its focus there if the U.S. doesn't work out.  

"We still trust in the UK, and we hope that the UK will trust us even more," he added. "We will invest even more in the UK. Because if the U.S. doesn't trust us, then we will shift our investment from the U.S. to the UK on an even bigger scale."

On the arrest of his daughter, Ren objected to the actions of U.S., calling them "politically motivated."

"The U.S. likes to sanction others, whenever there's an issue, they'll use such combative methods," he said.

"We object to this. But now that we've gone down this path, we'll let the courts settle it."

Related:

Huawei tests Europe's independence

What Europe needs is not only the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, but also the courage to make its own independent choices. Europe's cooperation with Huawei on construction of a 4G network is already an established fact, but it seems now that beneficial collaboration has become one of the biggest risks.

 

Related posts:

 

China to US: You’re lying about Huawei, unjust and immoral bullying

 

Internet Protocol Version 9 第一代互联网 IPv9, Quantum Computing, AI and Blockchain: The Future of IT 

 

Reuters pic. The term 5G stands for a fifth generation — to succeed the current fourth generation of mobile connectivity that has made...

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies Co., speaks during an interview at the company's headq..

https://youtu.be/jYs75AzA4xU By John Gramlich and Kat Devlin A growing share of people around the world see U.S. power and influenc...

Successful Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew vs American CIA  Spy:


  https://youtu.be/kgMACk6YCEg

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Why Huawei’s 5G technology is seen as a threat by the US

Reuters pic.

The term 5G stands for a fifth generation — to succeed the current fourth generation of mobile connectivity that has made video sharing and movie streaming commonplace.

The new technology will require an overhaul of telecommunication infrastructure.

The 5G will do more than make mobile phones faster — it will link billions of devices, revolutionising transportation, manufacturing and even medicine. It will also create a multitude of potential openings for bad actors to exploit.

The vulnerability helps explain the rising tension between the US and Huawei Technologies Co, China’s largest technology company.

Huawei is pushing for a global leadership role in 5G, but American officials suspect that could help Beijing spy on Western governments and companies.

“Huawei’s significant presence in 5G creates a new vector for possible cyber-espionage and malware,” Michael Wessel, a commissioner on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that advises Congress, said in an interview.

By connecting whole new classes of products, 5G “creates new vulnerabilities”.

The technology holds great promise. Forests of gadgets will communicate instantly via millions of antennas. Cars will talk to each other to avert lethal crashes, factory foremen will monitor parts supplies and doctors can perform remote surgery as video, sound and data flow without delay.

Connections will be 10 to 100 times faster than current standards — quick enough to download an entire movie in seconds.

Yet, US national security officials see billions of opportunities for spies, hackers and cyber-thieves to steal trade secrets, sabotage machinery and even order cars to crash.

Citing security threats, the US has been pushing allies to block Huawei from telecommunication networks. The US Congress has banned government agencies from buying the company’s gear.

Why is the United States intent on killing Huawei? Look at the data below:

Huawei employs more than 10,000 Phd degree holders as well as many talented Russian mathematicians.

Do you know how many Huawei employees earn more than 1 million yuan (RM603,280) a year? More than 10,000 people.

Do you know how many Huawei employees earn more than five million yuan a year? More than 1,000 people!

In China alone, Huawei’s research and development expenditure is 89.6 billion yuan.

Among the Big Three, Alibaba employs 30,000 people, Baidu 50,000, Tencent about 30,000, leading to a total of 110,000; but Huawei’s global employees total 170,000.

Alibaba’s profit is 23.4 billion yuan, Tencent’s 24.2 billion yuan, Baidu’s 10.5 billion yuan, and their profits total 58 billion yuan, but 70% is taken away by foreigners. Since 2000, Huawei has earned 1.39 trillion yuan from abroad.

In taxes, Tencent pays more than seven billion yuan a year, Alibaba 10.9 billion yuan, and Baidu 2.2 billion. Huawei pays 33.7 billion yuan, which is more than the total of the earlier three firms.

Huawei is a high-tech company, and technology represents the true strength of a country.

In China, many companies can’t last long because there are always other companies ready to replace them, but Huawei is irreplaceable.

Huawei is a 100% Chinese company that has not been listed and does not intend to go public because of the susceptibility to be controlled by capital (which the United States can simply print money to do).

Huawei is the first private technology company in China ever to join the league of the world’s top 100. The Chinese should be proud of Huawei.


FMT NewsKoon Yew Yin is a retired chartered civil engineer and one of the founders of IJM Corporation Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.

The views expressed by the writer do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

Related:
 
Yang Jiechi defends Huawei at the Munich Security Conference

https://youtu.be/vuqL7fBDWrI  

China to US: You’re lying about Huawei
 
https://youtu.be/WdNobdkSQyA

US trying to sabotage Huawei, ZTE and Sino-5G. Too late. Game over. China Rising Radio Sinoland
  https://youtu.be/UN3cUQ2LdhQ  

Race for 5G / China-U.S. trade talks

https://youtu.be/mz_2piA6d9U

Winner, loser in hi-tech race for 5G
 
https://youtu.be/HyasAnO8c0Y

World's first port operated by 5G network appears in eastern China

https://youtu.be/Wx8dych4pS0

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Huawei unveils server chipset as China cuts reliance on imports


Year 2018 review: Huawei and the technology cold war, competition in spheres of influence



Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei breaks years of silence amid continued US attacks on Chinese tech giant


From trade war to global anarchy?

 

Employees believe Huawei will survive widespread bans in West with ‘Wolf spirit’ culture


Did Huawei violate Iran sanctions? No, it shows deeper US-China battle for global influence as power coming from high-tech sector 

 

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei survived a famine, but can he weather President Trump?


Battle for global 5G mobile phone technology the real reason for Huawei CFO arrest

 

Huawei Surprise goldfish in a bowl 

 

Risk of rising McCarthyism warned amid China-US spat

 

More than just a trade war, US in skirmises with China over IT, trade and 'national security'

 

China demands U.S. to drop Huawei exec's extradition as the latter don't have law on their side

 

Apple faces brewing storm of challenges

 

  Unfolding future innovation: a look ahead at 2019's tech trends

 

How should China adjust its industrial policy?

 

World economy set to feel trade war pain in 2019

 

China's GPS rival BeiDou to go global

 

Looking East policy with a twist to China ?

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei breaks years of silence amid continued US attacks on Chinese tech giant

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies Co., speaks during an interview at the company's headquarters in Shenzhen, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. Ren, the billionaire telecom mogul, broke a years-long silence as his technology empire faces its biggest crisis over three decades of existence. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg https://youtu.be/YNkfddyDEkk https://youtu.be/TUqg4yrs-Po

Ren Zhengfei, the billionaire founder of Huawei Technologies, broke years of silence on Tuesday as his business empire faces its biggest crisis in more than three decades amid continued pressure from the US that its networking gear may pose a security threat.

The telecoms mogul called Donald Trump “a great president” and said he would take a wait-and-see approach to whether the US leader will intervene in the case of his eldest daughter and Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou.

Meng is in Canada facing extradition to the US, where authorities have accused her of fraudulently representing Huawei to evade US sanctions on Iran. She has denied any wrongdoing and said that she will contest the allegations if surrendered to the US.

The emergence of the reclusive Ren, who last spoke with foreign media in 2015, underscores the depth of the attacks on Huawei, the largest symbol of China’s growing technological might.

“I love my country, I support the Communist Party. But I will not do anything to harm the world,” the 74-year-old Ren told a select round table briefing, only his third formal chat with foreign reporters. “I don’t see a close connection between my personal political beliefs and the businesses of Huawei.”

The US has banned government use of Huawei’s technology products and services because of security concerns. US security experts have warned of a range of potential security risks, including but not limited to the capacity to control telecommunications infrastructure and even conduct undetected espionage. It has pressed its allies to follow suit.

Japan has excluded Huawei from public procurement and Australia and New Zealand have effectively blocked Huawei from the roll-out of their 5G network infrastructure. The UK and Canada are also weighing the possible security risks posed by Huawei — along with a growing list of other European countries.

Huawei has consistently denied any connections with the military, saying that it is a private company part-owned by its employees and that governments need to ensure there is an objective basis for choosing technology vendors.

“Ren Zhengfei doesn’t give many interviews, but his decision to speak publicly seems like a smart move,” said Brock Silvers, Shanghai-based managing director of Kaiyuan Capital. “The threat to Huawei’s European business is real and it is understandably responding to it. Ren’s public comments today show how seriously he views the situation.”
Ren, who joined the Communist Party after leaving the People’s Liberation Army, stressed the potential for cooperation with the US. He played down Huawei’s role in current trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, which have rattled investors and corporations worldwide.

“Huawei is only a sesame seed in the trade conflict between China and the US,” Ren said from the company’s newest campus in the industrial city of Dongguan.

“Trump is a great president. He dares to massively cut tax, which will benefit the business. But you have to treat well the companies and countries so that they will be willing to invest in the US and the government will be able to collect enough tax.”

Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged Canada to release Meng immediately, saying the case was an abuse of legal procedure. Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comment at a daily news briefing in Beijing.


Meng was released on bail five weeks ago and is living under restrictions in her multimillion-dollar Vancouver home while awaiting extradition proceedings.


The arrest in Poland last week of a sales executive accused of spying may have helped prompt Ren to personally marshal Huawei’s global response. The employee in Poland was subsequently fired by Huawei, which said the individual had brought the company into disrepute.

Ren expressed hope that Huawei could find a way forward with the US.


“Huawei is not a public company, we don’t need a beautiful earnings report,” Ren said. “If they don’t want Huawei to be in some markets, we can scale down a bit. As long as we can survive and feed our employees, there’s a future for us.”


Ren is a legendary figure in China’s business world and moves in the highest government circles. The self-made billionaire is the son of schoolteachers and grew up in a mountainous town in China’s poorest province, Guizhou.

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei survived a famine, but can he weather President Trump?


A survivor of China's great famine between 1958 and 1961, Ren graduated from the Chongqing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He worked in the civil engineering industry until 1974 when he joined the PLA as an engineer – a connection that still provokes questions in the West about Huawei’s ties to the Chinese army and government.





Saturday, January 12, 2019

Pushing blockchain revolution

(From left) World of Sharing business development manager Ice Wong, EUNEX (Asia) marketing director Kyan Lee, MBAEX chief executive officer Sebastian Ionut Diaconu, Lim, International Blockchain Research Club vice-president Sunny Chao and blockchain technology company Milletique OTO Distribution senior manager Jasmond Ng posing at Fintech Blockchain Summit in Kulim, Kedah

OVER 2,000 blockchain enthusiasts and leaders shared the latest ideas at Fintech Blockchain Summit which was held in Kulim, Kedah.

The summit themed ‘Blockchain Era, Connecting Future’ explored the potential of blockchain technology in various economic fields.

Delegates discussed blockchain trends and evolution to various platforms and digital assets.

Held at MBI Desaku Multi-function Convention Centre, the summit was jointly organised by World Crypto Organisation, Makefamous Creative Hub Sdn Bhd, Milletique OTO Distribution Sdn Bhd, Mightficent Global Sdn Bhd, Menbridges Academy Sdn Bhd and Macsintec Social Media Sdn Bhd.

Among those attending the summit was Super Minor Community vice-president Nicholas Lim who is also Chainverses magazine chief editor.

“Various groups joined us at the summit to contribute to the progression of financial technology through discussions and sharing sessions.

“We hope this summit will open up greater opportunities for development,” Lim said.

Lim opined that blockchain had good concepts and ideas.

However, he said the biggest resistance in the current blockchain development was the lack of economic support in terms of adoption.

“To overcome this, we need teamwork, good practical solutions and support from the community to push the adoption of blockchain in the country forward,” he added.

During the summit, four groups signed an MoU, including International Financial Technology Academy, Linton University College, Milletique Technology and Menbridges Academy.

The MoU aimed to promote blockchain financial technology through education with the hope of cultivating more blockchain experts in the future.

By emilia ismail The Star


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From Industrial 4.0 to Finance 4.0

Monday, January 7, 2019

Apple faces brewing storm of challenges


Shrinking share: People walk outside an Apple store in Beijing. Apple’s market share in China in the third quarter of 2018 was around 9, and has dipped from above 14 in 2015, overtaken by local rivals like Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. — Reuters
https://youtu.be/iJfCBqPUKHQ

SHANGHAI: Apple Inc’s chief executive Tim Cook has his work cut out in China this year: the iPhone maker faces the looming threat of a court-ordered sales ban, the uncertain outcome of trade war talks and the roll-out of a new 5G network, where it finds itself behind rivals like Huawei and Samsung.

The complex outlook raises a challenge for Apple as it looks to revive its China fortunes after weakness there sparked a rare drop in its global sales forecast, knocked US$75bil from its market valuation and roiled global markets.

Cook told investors that the main drag on the firm’s performance in China had been a sharper-than-expected slowdown in the country’s economy, exacerbated by the impact of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“We did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” he said.

Chinese shoppers told Reuters another element had been key: the high price-tag on Apple’s flagship phones.

Analysts said the firm faced a brewing storm of challenges: an economic slowdown, stronger rivals like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd bringing out comparable tech at lower prices and bubbling patriotic sentiment amid the trade war.

A Chinese court has also issued a preliminary injunction banning some Apple phones, part of a legal battle with chip maker Qualcomm Inc. This ban, potentially hitting iPhone models from the 6S through the X, has yet to be enforced.

Last Thursday a local industry body, the China Anti-Infringement and Anti-Counterfeit Innovation Strategic Alliance, called on Apple to heed the court order and not “trample the Chinese law by leveraging its super economic power and clout.” Apple declined to comment on the group’s statement but has previously said it believed its current phones complied with the Chinese court’s order.

“These are tough times for Apple in China,” said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint, adding the iPhone could see its market share slip to 7% this year in the face of stronger local rivals and worry about the sales ban.

Apple’s market share in the third-quarter of 2018 was around 9%, and has dipped from above 14% in 2015, overtaken by local rivals like Huawei, Oppo and Vivo.

Another question mark for Apple is its 5G strategy in China, where the US firm is not expected to have a 5G-enabled phone until 2020, behind rivals like Huawei, Xiaomi Corp and Samsung Electronics.

China is looking to push ahead with its rollout of a faster 5G network, with a pre-commercial phase this year and a commercial network in 2020.

Some are looking to make an early bet on the technology.

Huawei is planning a 5G phone mid-year, while Xiaomi is aiming for the third quarter. Samsung is expected to unveil a 5G phone in the first half of the year.

Industry insiders, however, said Apple would likely hold off until the fall of 2020 to have its own 5G-enabled phone, a strategy that would bypass the untested early period of the technology, but which could mean Chinese shoppers delay iPhone purchases or buy another brand that switched to 5G earlier.

“I’ll definitely be paying attention to 5G functionality when I buy my next phone,” said Wu Chengjun, a graduate student in Beijing who currently uses an iPhone X.

With the exception of Huawei, which makes it own 5G chips, Qualcomm is providing the technology to many of the major phone makers releasing 5G handsets this year.

“If you’re a (phone maker) looking for a ‘super cycle’ (of sales), if you don’t have 5G, your situation won’t get any better,” Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s president, told Reuters in an interview. ”

The carrier channel is going to be incentivised to start selling 5G phones in the second half of 2019, he said. — Reuters

Related:

Penang firms: Effect of Apple’s order-cut likely to be temporary

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5G connectivity promises faster Internet speeds and more efficiency to run complex tasks in the cloud. — 123rf.com   https://youtu.b...

US President Donald Trump discards staff like changing shirts and reverses policies without any forewarnings to staff or supporters alik..

Saturday, January 5, 2019

2019 - The rise of the quantum era

US President Donald Trump discards staff like changing shirts and reverses policies without any forewarnings to staff or supporters alike. This behaviour is described by Armenian President Sarkissian, a quantum physicist-turned-politician, as quantum politics. afp -  
THE year 2018 was an exhausting one, but it marked the exhaustion of the old neo-liberal order, willingly dismantled by President Donald Trump to the aghast of friends and foes alike.

We seem to live at the edge of chaos, in which every dawn is broken by tweets that disrupt the status quo. There are no anchors of stability. Trump discarded staff like changing shirts, and reversed policies without any forewarnings to staff or supporters alike.

This behaviour was described by Armenian President Armen Vardani Sarkissian, a quantum physicist turned politician, as quantum politics.

Most of us use the term quantum to mean anything that we cannot understand. The reason why we find quantum concepts weird is that they do not conform with normal logic. As Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli explains it, “Reality is not what it seems”.

Human beings live at the macroscopic scale, which we observe from daily life. We like stability and order. But at the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr changed the way physicists thought about how nature behaved. Quantum physics evolved from the study of the behaviour of atoms at the microscopic scale.

Order is only one phase in the process of evolution.

And since the 1980s, quantum science has expanded beyond physics to neuro-science, information computing, cryptography and causal modelling, with great practical success.

Like the iPhone, most people don’t know how it works, but quantum mechanics does work in practice.

The first quantum concept is that it is probablistic, not deterministic. In simple language, there is no such thing as certainty, which classical science, religion and our normal instincts teach us to believe. In the beautiful language of Rovelli, “quantum fields draw space, time, matter and light, exchanging information between one event or another. Reality is a network of granular events, the dynamic which connects them is probabilistic; between one event and another, space, time, matter and energy melt in a cloud of probability.”

Second, Bohr defined a dualistic property of quantum situations called complementarity. Light is both a particle and wave, not either/or. This concept of complementarity leads to the famous Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which basically says that the position and velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly and simultaneously, even in theory. If everything in the world comprises atoms and photons moving constantly, nothing can be measured exactly – the principle of indeterminacy.

The third concept is relational, in that everything is related to something. There are no absolutes, just as there is no certainty. Everything exists relative to something else. Quantum entanglement occurs when pairs or groups of particles interact with each other so that the quantum state of each particle is somehow related to the state of the other(s), even across great distances.

This phenomenon is popularly called the butterfly effect, which dramatically says that a butterfly flapping its wings may cause a typhoon across the Pacific. Einstein called entanglement “Spooky Action at a Distance”, and he tried hard to disprove it. But these effects were empirically verified in the 1970s.

Quantum physics is moving to centre stage because quantum information theory led to the invention of quantum computing. Until recently conventional computers use binary “bits” (one and zero) as the process for calculation of information. But a quantum computer uses quantum bits, called qubits, which can exist in both states simultaneously, and in so doing, it can process information faster and more securely than conventional computers.

This breakthrough means that quantum computing will transform artificial intelligence, deep learning and advance technology at speed, scale and scope that rivals anything we have witnessed in the world of classical computing. The goldmine of quantum computing is going to make fortunes for everyone, but he who controls the infrastructure (or pipes) across which quantum computing will be conducted will be the big winner.

Information Age

In the Information Age, knowledge, technology and knowhow is more valuable than gold. Central bank monetary creation as well as cyber-currencies like bitcoin, are quantum money, because the marginal cost of production of such “money” is near zero.

We are all so dazzled by such marvellous creation that many investors moved into the alchemy of asset price bubbles. It is no coincidence that the South Sea and Tulip bubbles occurred in an era of great “displacement”, when 17th century investors (including Isaac Newton) had no clue how to price massive returns from new companies colonising the South Seas, or the technological rarity of creating a black tulip.

In qubit terms, hard assets and soft/virtual liabilities are quantumly entangled with each other. If you can generate quantum liabilities at near zero cost, you can control and increase real assets to the disadvantage of your competitors. Put crudely, with a quantum computer and deep learning, you might be able to generate a drone-sized nuclear bomb using 3D printing at very low cost.

Or even more bluntly, you can do this under quantum encryption that the incumbent powers do not even know what you are doing.

It is therefore no coincidence, that the Western Deep States moved quickly against Chinese enterprises ZTE and Huawei, because these two have been big developers and users of quantum computing. First, deprive the competitor from access to the key high-tech fast chips that enable quantum computing to perform at speed. Second, disrupt the management and key talent that would enable such quantum capacity to be operationalised. Third, prevent them acquiring market share to an entrenched level, so that you have time to bring your own technology up to speed.

All these suggest that if you think in Thucydides Trap terms (classical arms race to nuclear war), we will all end up in nuclear mutual destruction.

If quantum thinking is a more “natural” way of thinking about our physical world and human behaviour (since our brains appear to neurologically work in quantum terms), then it means that we need to get rid of old classical thinking and mental traps. The real challenges to global prosperity and survival are climate change, social injustice, corruption, crime and disruptive technology, but mostly outdated mindsets. We need to think through these challenges in quantum terms, which means very new and weird ways of thinking round these obstacles.

Discarding old mindsets is never easy. But mankind has always thrived on getting new solutions to old problems, perhaps this time through a quantum frame of mind. On that optimistic note,

Happy New Year to all!

By Andrew Sheng - Think Asian- Tan Sri Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective.

Related:


The photo shows electronics for use in a quantum computer in the quantum computing lab. Describing the inner workings of a quantum computer isn’t easy, even for top scholars. — AP








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