"LG's strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services," it said in a statement.

After a failed $7 billion acquisition of Nokia's smartphone business five years back, Microsoft has announced a strategic collaboration with the Finnish company to accelerate transformation and innovation across industries with Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). The new partnership brings together Microsoft cloud solutions and Nokia's expertise in mission-critical networking, to help enterprises and communications service providers (CSPs) transform their businesses. "Bringing together Microsoft's expertise in intelligent cloud solutions and Nokia's strength in building business and mission-critical networks will unlock new connectivity and automation scenarios," Jason Zander, executive vice president, Microsoft Azure, said in a statement on Tuesday. BT is the first global communications service provider to offer its enterprise customers a managed service that integrates Microsoft Azure cloud and Nokia SD-WAN solutions. "Together, we will accelerate the digital transformation journey towards Industry 4.0, driving economic growth and productivity for both enterprises and service providers," said Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise and Chief Strategy Officer.

FOR TWO years reports of mass incarceration have seeped out of the remote Chinese province of Xinjiang. Over 1m people, mainly Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, have been locked up in camps. Millions more live under a police state. American officials, fearful of upending trade negotiations, have dithered over a response. On October 7th, three days ahead of the 13th round of talks, they put their foot down.

LG Group has reportedly set up a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley in a move to find emerging startups that focus on robotics, artificial intelligence and auto parts. On Monday, the holding company of the conglomerate, LG Corp., announced that the VC firm, named LG Technology Ventures, will manage a $400 million fund. The funding for the new firm is said to have come from four affiliates, namely: LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Chem and South Korea-based cellular carrier LG Uplus, The Investor first reported. "The newly established unit is aimed at finding new business opportunities, and startups to acquire," an LG official, who refused to be named, said of the company's latest venture. It was revealed that the VC firm is eager to invest in technology areas that are expected to flourish in the coming years. Hence, it is said to be focused on finding startups that specialize in robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Google has announced it's acquiring a $1.1bn chunk of HTC's smartphone business, and with it providing the once leading Taiwanese phone brand a much needed lifeline. But what does Google want with part of a smartphone business? Google gains half of HTC's research and development team – about 2,000 people – and a non-exclusive license for HTC's intellectual property, allowing it to take advantage of some of HTC's advances in smartphone technology. HTC gets a cash injection, which will help it survive in some very competitive markets, and Google gets to continue its "big bet on hardware" according to Rick Osterloh, the company's senior vice president for hardware. It's "a business decision to have access to one of the best R&D teams", said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

Since its messaging app debuted in June 2011, Line Corp. has shaken up the online communications landscape in Japan and morphed into a player in smartphone communications infrastructure. So Line is planting the seeds of success for what it thinks will be the next big thing: voice-based "AI agents." While this artificial-intelligence quest will pit the smaller Line against IT powerhouses Google, Apple and Amazon, among others, Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa likes his chances. "We are taking on a new challenge because we believe we have the assets to win the battle," Idezawa told The Japan Times in a recent interview. This is quite a change for a firm that owes its success to a prescient bet on smartphones less than a decade ago.

BlackBerry reported another quarter of losses and declining revenue on Tuesday, but CEO John Chen forecast that the company will break even next quarter, its first since quitting the smartphone business. The company signaled its departure from the smartphone hardware business last week, licensing its brand to TCL, the Chinese manufacturer that built the last two BlackBerry handsets. Chen's break-even forecast had a caveat: It didn't include restructuring charges, stock compensation expenses, fair-value adjustments and a host of other things, so the company will still make a loss, but a smaller one. With smartphones out of its product mix, BlackBerry is looking to a different kind of mobility to drive its future growth: the automotive industry, the major source of revenue for its QNX embedded software platform. QNX already powers infotainment systems, but Chen sees a big role for it in self-driving vehicles.

Google's Android dominates the smartphone market overall, but Apple has attracted a disproportionate share of high-end users -- and consequently an outsize share of smartphone profits. At a Tuesday event, Google unveiled a two-pronged strategy to change that. Part one was the Pixel, the first smartphone that will be designed and manufactured by Google. Google is betting that building its own phone will allow it to offer the same kind of seamless user experience Apple provides its own users. But the second prong of Google's strategy is more original and received more attention on Tuesday.