Huawei Says it Has Made Huge Strides, from Operating Systems to AI 

A view shows a Huawei logo at Huawei Technologies France headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, France, February 17, 2021. (Reuters) 
A view shows a Huawei logo at Huawei Technologies France headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, France, February 17, 2021. (Reuters) 
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Huawei Says it Has Made Huge Strides, from Operating Systems to AI 

A view shows a Huawei logo at Huawei Technologies France headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, France, February 17, 2021. (Reuters) 
A view shows a Huawei logo at Huawei Technologies France headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, France, February 17, 2021. (Reuters) 

China's Huawei Technologies said on Friday it had made breakthroughs in fields from operating systems to artificial intelligence, and that it had taken the company 10 years to do what the United States and Europe took 30 years to achieve.

Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, was speaking at the opening of a three-day developer conference in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan, where he said the company's Harmony operating system was now available on more than 900 million devices.

"Harmony has made major breakthroughs. You can say in 10 years we've achieved what it took our European and American counterparts more than 30 years to do, in terms of building the core technology of an independent operating system," Yu said.

The company's Ascend artificial intelligence infrastructure - the most powerful from a Chinese company - was now the second most popular after Nvidia, which dominates the market for AI chips, Yu added.

Operating systems and other software have been dominated by Europe and the United States for a long time, although the era of internet of things has given Huawei an opportunity to overtake them, he said.

In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei's HarmonyOS, its in-house version of the operating system, surpassed Apple's iOS to become the second best-selling mobile operating system in China behind Android with a 17% market share, research firm Counterpoint said.



Nintendo Says Switch 2 will be Released in 2025

Nintendo Says Switch 2 will be Released in 2025
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Nintendo Says Switch 2 will be Released in 2025

Nintendo Says Switch 2 will be Released in 2025

Japan's Nintendo (7974.T), will release the Switch 2 console, successor to its hit Switch device, this year, it said on Thursday.

The Kyoto-based gaming company did not release pricing for the new device and said it would provide more details at a Nintendo Direct event on April 2.

The company said that existing Switch software will be usable on the new device although some games may not be fully compatible.

Consumers and investors have been waiting for details of the new console, which appears to closely follow the playbook established by the hybrid home-portable Switch.

"The reveal did not have the punch of the original Switch," said Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy, Reuters reported.

"What we saw is more like a 'Switch Pro' - an upgraded version that is bigger - than a Switch 2," he said, adding the launch will likely be after June.

The Switch transformed Nintendo's fortunes following the poor performance of the Wii U console, and has sold more than 145 million units.

Nintendo has extended the lifecycle of the Switch, which launched in 2017, with hardware refreshes and hit games from franchises such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda.

The company has said it expects to sell 12.5 million units of the ageing Switch console in the financial year ending March.

"The Switch 2 is poised to reinvigorate hardware sales," Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a client note ahead of the announcement.

"Even if Nintendo builds up capacity to manufacture 15m Switch 2 for the year, the demand is likely to outstrip supply for several months/quarters," he added.

The Switch is the company's second best seller, topped only by the handheld Nintendo DS which sold 154 million units in total.

Nintendo is heavily dependent on its console business, even as it has opened stores and with its roster of characters featuring in theme parks and film.

Along with PlayStation maker Sony (6758.T), Japanese companies remain leading console providers, even as technology such as mobile and cloud offers alternatives for gaming.