Huawei Tops China Smartphone Sales Leading to 618 Festival, up 42.4% y/y

01 September 2022, Berlin: The logo of Huawei at the electronics fair IFA. (dpa)
01 September 2022, Berlin: The logo of Huawei at the electronics fair IFA. (dpa)
TT

Huawei Tops China Smartphone Sales Leading to 618 Festival, up 42.4% y/y

01 September 2022, Berlin: The logo of Huawei at the electronics fair IFA. (dpa)
01 September 2022, Berlin: The logo of Huawei at the electronics fair IFA. (dpa)

Chinese phone maker Huawei lead in smartphone sales in China in the May 20-June 16 period that coincided with the 618 shopping festival, selling 42.4% more than a year ago, Counterpoint Research said on Tuesday.

Huawei's sales were driven by continued demand for its new 5G products, said the research firm, which covers the technology, media and telecom industry.

Total smartphone sales in China rose 6.8% during the period compared with a year before, with Xiaomi's sales higher by nearly 12.6% and Apple's sales up 2.7%.



UK Clears Amazon's AI Partnership with Anthropic

The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
TT

UK Clears Amazon's AI Partnership with Anthropic

The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Britain's competition regulator said on Friday Amazon's artificial intelligence partnership with startup Anthropic will not be referred for a deeper probe as it did not raise competition concerns.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the partnership, which includes a $4 billion investment by Amazon in Anthropic, did not qualify for investigation under Britain's merger regulations.

"We welcome the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction regarding this collaboration," an Amazon spokesperson said in response to the regulator's decision, according to Reuters.

The regulator has also cleared a similar collaboration between Microsoft and Inflection AI.

However, Alphabet's partnership with Anthropic is still under scrutiny.

"Anthropic is an independent company and our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or freedom to partner with others," an Anthropic spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, has received billions of dollars in investments from several tech giants.

Antitrust regulators around the world have increasingly raised concerns over multiple deals struck between smaller industry startups and big tech companies.