China Launches New Homegrown Supercomputer

People walk past a building with a Christmas decoration in Beijing, China December 4, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
People walk past a building with a Christmas decoration in Beijing, China December 4, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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China Launches New Homegrown Supercomputer

People walk past a building with a Christmas decoration in Beijing, China December 4, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
People walk past a building with a Christmas decoration in Beijing, China December 4, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

China unveiled a new domestically developed supercomputing system on Wednesday that state news agency Xinhua said was many times more powerful than a previous version. The supercomputing system called "Tianhe Xingyi", was unveiled by the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, at an industry event in the capital of southern China's Guangdong Province, Xinhua said.
Xinhua did not give more details on the new system's computing power.
But the report cited Lu Yutong, director of the center, as saying that the new computer used domestically designed architecture and has outperformed Tianhe-2, one of China's fastest supercomputers, in capacities such as CPU computing power, networking, storage, and applications.
Tianhe-2 is being developed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and is hosted at the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, Reuters reported.
Tianhe-2 topped a list of the world's 500 fastest systems for three consecutive years from 2013 but dropped out of the top position in 2016, the year after the US government placed the NUDT on a blacklist that eliminated the university's access to the Intel processors it uses in its supercomputers.
Other prominent Chinese supercomputing systems include Sunway TaihuLight, developed by the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, which ranked seventh on the June 2023 list while Tianhe-2 placed tenth.



Apple’s China Market Share Shrinks as Huawei Surges, Data Shows 

A woman walks past a logo of Apple Inc in Wuhan, Hubei province July 24, 2013. (Reuters)
A woman walks past a logo of Apple Inc in Wuhan, Hubei province July 24, 2013. (Reuters)
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Apple’s China Market Share Shrinks as Huawei Surges, Data Shows 

A woman walks past a logo of Apple Inc in Wuhan, Hubei province July 24, 2013. (Reuters)
A woman walks past a logo of Apple Inc in Wuhan, Hubei province July 24, 2013. (Reuters)

Apple's market share in China shrank by two percentage points in the second quarter of 2024, as the tech giant faced intensifying competition from rivals like Huawei, according to data from market research firm Canalys.

The decline underscores the difficulties the US tech giant faces in its third-largest market.

Huawei's smartphone shipments surged 41% year-on-year in the quarter, bolstered by the launch of its new Pura 70 series in April.

The Canalys data, while not providing specific shipment figures for Apple, showed that the company's market share in China dropped to 14% in the second quarter of 2024, a decrease from 16% in the same quarter of 2023.

As a result of this decline, Apple's ranking in the Chinese smartphone market fell from third to sixth place.

Overall, China's smartphone shipments rose by 10% in the quarter, Canalys said. Vivo was the top vendor with a share of 19%, followed by Oppo, Honor and Huawei with 16%, 15% and 15% respectively.

"Domestic manufacturers have demonstrated market leadership, occupying the top five positions in the mainland Chinese market for the first time in history," said Lucas Zhong, research analyst at Canalys.

"On the other hand, Apple faces growth pressure in the Chinese market and is actively focusing on optimizing channel management."

Huawei made a comeback to the high-end smartphone segment last August with the release of a device powered by a domestically-made chip, defying US sanctions that have cut off its access to the global chipset supply chain.

In an effort to boost sales, Apple has ramped up its discounting efforts this year to entice consumers. The US company launched an aggressive campaign in May, doubling the scale of an earlier promotion in February and offering price cuts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318.84) on select iPhone models.

Analysts expect Huawei's strong performance to continue throughout the year. Canadian research firm TechInsights projected earlier this year that Huawei's overall smartphone shipments in China will exceed 50 million units in 2024, with the Pura 70 series accounting for 10 million of those shipments.

That would make Huawei the No. 1 seller with a 19% market share, up from 12% in 2023, TechInsights has said.