On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Global smartphone sales return to growth in Q1 2018, Gartner reports-- specifically by 1.3% Y-o-Y, reaching 384 million units (or 84% of total mobile phone sales reaching 455m units).

"Demand for premium and high-end smartphones continued to suffer due to marginal incremental benefits during upgrade," the analyst remarks. "Demand for entry-level smartphones (sub-$100) and low midtier smartphones (sub-$150) improved due to better-quality models."

Limiting growth potential for the top global brands is weakness in Greater China, affecting both big names such as Samsung and Apple as well as Chinese bands such as Oppo and Vivo. The latter two companies make over 70% of sales from Greater China. Samsung remains smartphone sales leader, even if it faces midtier competition from Chinese bands, leading to a Y-o-Y drop in sales despite the launch of the flagship Galaxy S9/S9+ and Note 8.

Dixons Carphone announces the closure of 92 Carphone Warehouse standalone stores as the retailer issues a profits warning in the face of a shrinking market and changing customer habits.

"[W]e’ll work hard to improve our cost efficiency," CEO Alex Baldock tells investors. "We won’t tolerate our current performance in mobile, or as a Group. We know we can do a lot better...  There’s so much more to come from Dixons Carphone, though plenty of hard work lies ahead.

"The store closings comes as the retailer reports fiscal Q4 growth of just 1% Y-o-Y in the UK & Ireland, the result of a softer computing market. Dixons Carphone does see stronger performance on the international side, with revenue growth reaching 8% in the Nordics and 10% in Greece. The two regions also see "record levels of market share," as well as an increase in market leadership and operating margins.

Asus ROG takes to Computex 2018 to launch a take on the high-spec gaming smartphone concept-- the ROG Phone, a first handset from the company designed specifically for gaming.

Being a ROG-branded device the Phone looks suitably aggressive, with a RGB lighting and angular designs on the back. The insides appear to be equally fierce, with a 2.96GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor (the "world's fastest speed-binned," according to Asus), up to 8GB RAM, 512GB storage and 4000mAh battery. Meanwhile the 6-inch 2160 x 1080 OLED display has a 90Hz refresh rate and is HDR capable.

Further features include a dual rear-facing camera setup (12MP regular plus 8MP wide-angle), 8MP front-facing camera, dual front-facing stereo speakers, NFC support, USB-C port and 3.5mm jack. Another interesting addition is a trio of ultrasonic sensors. Two of the sensors act as programmable shoulder buttons for landscape gaming, while the third allows users to switch apps with a squeeze.

Qualcomm launches a processor aimed specifically at AR and VR headsets-- the Snapdragon XR1 Platform, described as the first dedicated processor for eXtended Reality (XR).

Current standalone VR headsets have had to make use of what are essentially repurposed smartphone processors. The XR1 claims to change the situation, since it is a platform powerful enough to handle such tasks while a fairly low price point. Admittedly the chipset does appear to be based on Qualcomm smartphone offerings, if tweaked with an emphasis on the processing of 3D XR tasks, such as audio/visual processing, user interaction and AI.