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Apple’s iPhone slips in China

Apple and Huawei took each other on this quarter in China as their phone release events came almost back-to-back in September. However, in the third quarter of this year, Apple’s iPhone sales in the country fell by 0.3% as Huawei enjoyed a 42% lift, despite being hit with sanctions in the Western market. However, thanks to its budget-friendly offerings, Vivo was the top vendor and claimed a market share of 18.6%, compared to Apple’s 15.6% market share, and Huawei’s 15.3% market share.

Apple tried to woo its Chinese buyers with promotional offers, while others were awed by the release of the iPhone 16 series. However, Huawei soon stunned buyers with a high-end tri-fold smartphone. It remains to be seen how the rollout of Apple Intelligence will impact iPhone 16 sales next year.

Google-Anthropic partnership under scrutiny

Britain’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, has said it will be investigating Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic over concerns that their deal might impact competition in the market. The CMA can approve the deal or take other actions against the companies by December 19. In turn, Google said that its aim was to build “the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” and noted that Anthropic could use multiple cloud providers.

Anthropic, which makes the Claude AI model, said that it was cooperating with the regulator and would provide the needed details about its partnership with Google. As more Big Tech companies invest heavily in generative AI, or startups specialising in this field, regulators are concerned about the potential consequences of power concentration in the sector, and its implications for users.

Microsoft CEO’s 63% pay spike

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s compensation spiked by 63% this year, going to $79.1 million, largely thanks to his stock awards. Microsoft also had a notable year as its market value hit $3 trillion amidst its ongoing partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and its own AI product upgrades while Big Tech giants race to make the most of the generative AI boom.

At the same time, Nadella took a cash incentive of only $5.2 million instead of $10.7 million. This was due to him asking for a reduction after there were several cybersecurity incidents during the assessment period. After facing stern questions from the U.S. authorities, Microsoft has worked to make cybersecurity a priority for employees as part of their own performance assessments.