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Samsung Reports the Lowest Quarterly Profit Since 2016

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Like every year, Samsung reports its Q1 profits at the end of April, and ahead of that, the company has revealed that it is likely to face 60 per cent of the decline in its quarterly profits compared to the previous year. The company has reported that the decline in the profits is due to the rapid decrease in the sales of memory chips and its display products.

samsung
Image Source: komando.com

Noticeably, the 2018’s Q1 operating profit was reported to be 15.64 trillion South Korean won, which now has fallen to 6.2 trillion won for this year’s Q1 operating profits. According to Samsung, it had already expected a 14 per cent decline in its operating profits for the first quarter of 2019, which was estimated to be around 13.2 trillion South Korean won.

In the past year, the memory chips prices dropped by a surprising rate, and the company too had stated that price drops were “larger than expected.” This report of the operating profits indicates the Q1 2019 profits will be the lowest since the third quarter of 2016 (due to the worldwide recall of it’s over exploding batteries of Galaxy Note 7 in 2016). In past few years, Samsung has been getting hints on the slowing down of the growth of the company, and even the company is aware of that, as the analysts’ reports has been revealing the continuous decrease in the sales of Samsung products.

Samsung though is trying hard to compete with the biggest tech giants like Apple, the main source of its profits has always been the mid-range products. Also, its semiconductor division has been the greatest contributor to its high revenues. So it may be the time when the company should focus on its loyal customers, and the mid-tier products to secure that additional revenue.

But according to the analysts, this decline in the profits will remain for a bit longer, especially in the memory chip division. The price of the memory chips may decrease up to 20 per cent in the coming future, and then in Q2, the semiconductor division may see even lower profits.,

Snapchat Launched a New Gaming Platform & other New Features at its First Partner Conference

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Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel hosted the Snapchat’s first partner summit in Los Angeles on Thursday, where he announced a few new features, and a new suite of products, in his keynote speech. According to Spiegel, the company is all set to introduce a new revamped AR camera, Snap Games, and integration with third-party apps.

The company has been facing a lot of pressure and competition by its rival companies, Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, Snapchat is also trying to get ahead of the competition by introducing new features and products.

snapchat
Image Source: techspot.com

Going through the facts, Spiegel said, “In the United States, Snapchat now reached nearly 75 per cent of all 13-34-year-olds, and we reach 90 per cent of 13-24-year-olds. In fact, we reach more 13-24-year-olds than Facebook or Instagram in the United States, the UK, France, Canada and Australia.”

Like its contemporaries, Apple and Google, Snapchat has introduced an ad-supported Snapchat gaming platform and has teamed up with some renowned game developers. The platform will be rolling out the game titles including Bitmoji Party, Tiny Royale, Snake Squad, C.A.T.S. Drift Race, Zombie Rescue Squad, and Alphabear Hustle. The Bitmoji kit has also got new updates, and now those Bitmojis will also reflect in Venmo and Fitbit devices.

The Snapchat Lenses integrated with Augmented Reality, now will help its users to solve math equations and other features like body tracking, hand tracking as well as pet tracking are also added to it. The new AR bar will be located under the Lense slider, and the user can select any of the options according to their need. Also, over 400,000 Lenses have been created for the updated Snapchat.

The company has also introduced Landmarks, that includes filters that are specifically designed to get applied when the camera points to any of the iconic places like Eiffel Tower in Paris, Capitol One building in Washington, Buckingham Palace, The Flatiron Building in New York City, etc.

According to Snapchat, now the users will be able to post the stories directly to its other partner social media platforms. The first platform that will have this feature is Tinder. Also, Snapchat will let the users share the music they are listening to on the JioSaavn on Snapchat and Netflix will also get similar support.

The company is also about to monetise the third party apps to help its partners to get some benefits.

Beats to Launch its First True Wireless Earbuds ‘Powerbeats Pro’ which are Costlier than Latest AirPods

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The competition in the wireless earbuds market is increasing every other day, and companies like Apple and Samsung are one of the leaders of the very field. Recently, Apple launched its second-generation AirPods, and now, the Apple-acquired Beats is also set to enter into the competition independently with its Powerbeats Pro.

powerbeats-pro
Image Source: thurrott.com

The Powerbeats Pro is a pair of $250 wireless earbuds. Beats has worked well on the design of the product, and it comes with a better grip and better battery life, i.e., the Powerbeats Pro can be used continuously for 9 hours straight.

Having been worked with Apple, Beats has created a similar design and has got an over-the-ear hook, which keeps the earbuds on its place when the user is walking, running or working out.

“Over 20 configurations were electronically modelled and physically tested. The result is a completely new, ergonomically angled acoustic housing that nests comfortably in the concha bowl of the ear with an off-axis nozzle,” said Beats in the announcement.

The earbuds ships with volume controls in both the earpieces. The earbuds do not have any power button but include motion sensors, so the earbuds go to sleep whenever stays idle for a longer time. Like the other wireless earplugs, the Powerbeats Pro gets paused as soon as removed from ears and start to play the music when gets plugged into the ears.

According to Beats, the earbuds are 23 per cent smaller and 17 per cent lighter than the Powerbeats 3, and the audio quality for the calls has also been improved in this model. It also provides noise reduction property to enhance the call quality. The Powerbeats Pro is sweat and water resistant.

The earbuds include the same Apple H1 chip that provides the support for Apple-only feature Siri.

The elements that can be considered as the drawbacks are the bigger size of the charging case, no wireless charging available for the earbuds, and no LED light to show the charging status.

Though these earbuds are built by the Apple-acquired company, these are also compatible with Android devices. The Powerbeats Pro earbuds work well on the criteria of ‘true’ wireless earbuds, but these are on the pricier side. In fact, these cost $50 more than the latest second generation AirPods. Since Beats has been a leader in the field of earphone and headphone manufacturing, we can expect the Powerbeats Pro to get more user base. The company will start shipping the Powerbeats Pro earbuds from the beginning of May this year.

Flipkart Tops the List of Best Company for Employees in India Third Time in a Row; Beats Amazon and Oyo

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LinkedIn has released the 4th edition of the ‘2019 Top Companies in India’, and Flipkart is the one that topped the list of the most preferred workplace for Indians. The Walmart acquired company Flipkart is a home for over 14000 employees and is one of the fastest growing companies in India.

flipkart
Image Source: amarujala.com

The list from LinkedIn has ranked Amazon and OYO at the second and the third places, and the parent company of PayTm, One97, got shifted to fourth place from the third place which it held in the last year’s list.

LinkedIn, with the help of its 54 million users in India, shortlists the companies for ranking in the list and take four major criteria into account – interest in the company, engagement with employees, job demand and employee retention. Also, another requirement for the companies to get ranked into the list was to have employed over 500 employees as of February 1, 2018.

The evaluation of the best company was among the private companies operating in India, and any non-profit firm, government institutions and the recruiting companies were excluded from the competition. Also, LinkedIn and its parent company, Microsoft, were also not included in the contest to keep it fair.

Though Flipkart has been winning this race for the past three years, consecutively, as it has made to the top of the same list in 2016 and 2017, it is a great achievement for any company to be in a list of the most loved company by the employees.

Flipkart is one of the most successful startups in India and houses major e-commerce service providers including Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe, in India. It was also credited for having the fairest in working conditions and wages for ‘gig economy’ workers by an Oxford Internet Institute study.

This annual survey of the companies is done globally to determine the top companies to work for in India, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, the U.K, and the U.S., among others. Following is the list of top 25 companies to work with according to LinkedIn:

  1. Flipkart (Walmart) – Internet
  2. Amazon – Internet
  3. Oyo – Hospitality
  4. One97 Communications (Paytm) – Internet
  5. Uber – Internet
  6. Swiggy – Internet
  7. Tata Consultancy Services – Information technology and services
  8. Zomato – Consumer services
  9. Alphabet – Internet
  10. Reliance Industries – Oil and energy
  11. EY – Accounting
  12. Adobe – Computer software
  13. Boston Consulting Group – Management consulting
  14. Yes Bank – Banking
  15. IBM – Information
  16. Daimler AG – Automotive technology and services
  17. Freshworks – Information technology and services
  18. Accenture – Information technology and services
  19. Ola – Internet
  20. ICICI Bank – Banking
  21. PwC India – Management consulting
  22. KPMG India – Management consulting
  23. Larsen & Toubro – Construction
  24. Oracle – Information technology and services
  25. Qualcomm – Wireless

Microsoft Removes its Unpopular eBook Category; Will Payback the Users for Inconvenience

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Most of the people won’t be aware that Microsoft owned an eBook store, which the tech giant has announced will be closed down soon. The company announced the news of removing its eBook division from its Microsoft Store on Tuesday, 2 April.

microsoft ebook
Image Source: kryptomoney.com

Microsoft introduced its eBook store back in April 2017 as a part of Windows 10 Creators Update. Like every other eBook Store, the Microsoft eBook Store also offered free eBooks and paid eBooks. But unlike the other eBook Stores, this eBook Store did not have any standalone app.

The company made its entry into the eBook business quite late, and the eBook Store itself could not add any value to the business of Microsoft, which can be a reason that the company has decided to discontinue its eBook division.

“Starting April 2, 2019, the books category in Microsoft Store will be closing. Unfortunately, this means that starting July 2019 your ebooks will no longer be available to read, but you’ll get a full refund for all book purchases.” the company stated in a post on its support page.

Microsoft has disclosed a few details over its support page, where it has mentioned that the users will be able to keep their eBooks in their Microsoft library and read the books till July this year. After July, the library will be removed, and any annotations made on the eBooks, in their eBook account on Microsoft’s eBook store will also disappear.

The company has offered refunds on every purchase the eBook Store users have made or for their preorders to buy books. The amount will be directly deposited to the payment methods the users used for the purchases or the amount will be credited to the user’s Microsoft Store account, which they can use for other purchases on the same platform.

Microsoft has also offered a $25 refund for the users who had annotations stored at the platform earlier than 2 April as an apology for the data loss and the inconvenience for the users. According to Microsoft, the refunds will start rolling out at the beginning of July 2019.

Readdle Launches SparkMail for Android as Google’s Inbox bites the Dust

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Google has just shut down its email app Inbox, to focus on its most successful product, Gmail. And if the Inbox users are looking for an alternative, the news is that Readdle has just launched its famous email app SparkMail for Android.

Earlier the email app was only available for the Apple’s platforms, i.e. iOS and MacOS, and is among the most popular email app for iOS. The company confirmed the news yesterday on Twitter that the app will also be available for Android users. The tweet stated, “Ok I’m going say it. The plan is to release the Android version on Tuesday 8 AM EDT.”

The Spark app provides a smarter interface and faster performance. It also offers features like the Smart Inbox, customizable sidebar and gesture-based UI.

The Smart Inbox is responsible for a neater and organised email in uniformly divided bundles like Personal, Notifications, Newsletters, etc. Also, whenever the user opens the app, they see the emails categories instead of a homepage flooded with emails. All the categories include a View All button that lists down all the emails in the very category. There is also an option to turn off this feature.

The customizable sidebar lets the users pin the important emails on the top or hide the unnecessary emails. The app offers a simple yet effective design. Also with the swipe action in the app, the user can easily delete or archive the emails. It also allows users to schedule their emails for the future. Also, it has got an undo button for the sent emails, that really is a useful feature for every person dealing with emails.

The discussed features are one of the major ones, and apart from these features it also provides support for iCloud. Though Google is all set to get its hands on improving Gmail, as it has already shut down Inbox, the launch of a Spark Android app with enhanced feature may be quite challenging for Google.

Spark is free to use app and is available on Play store. But the paid version of the app is also available for $6.39 per user per month that includes even more features.