In World War II, my granduncle Frans Nyamande was among the people conscripted to fight in North Africa. He was entangled in the combat between Erwin Rommel and Bernard Montgomery. He did not know what this war was about. It was a World War but essentially a European war. 



However, with Africa as a colony of Europe at the time, we were entangled and my granduncle signed up. As the old adage goes, ‘when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers’.



We are living in a dangerous era where the two superpowers are at war. The United States (US) and China, the two largest economies, are in a trade war. Like any other war, trade wars, too, have their own collateral damage. The genesis of this war was a complaint by US President Trump accusing China of unfair trade. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Data Is The New Gold (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2019/07/18/data-is-the-new-gold/" target="_blank">Data Is The New Gold</a>



The problem is the US exports goods to the tune of $60
billion to China whereas China exports goods worth $600 billion to the US.
This, according to the US President, is unfair trade. This quid pro quo
imposition of import tariffs is already damaging the world economy, and the
consequence of this will be devastating.



This trade war has escalated and now includes information and communications technology company Huawei. It started with the arrest of the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada for allegedly violating sanctions against Iran. She is awaiting extradition to the US. In retaliation, China arrested two Canadians for drug-related offences.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">When we thought the end was near, the US banned its companies from supplying technology tools to Huawei. The Huawei smart phone uses a software called Android, which was created by the US company Google. </blockquote>



This ban meant that Google could no longer support Huawei.
Furthermore, this ban also means that US semiconductor companies can no longer
supply semiconductor chips to Huawei. 



To understand the implications of this trade war, one ought to understand the strengths and weaknesses of China and the US. China has emerged the most sought-after country in the world when it comes to the manufacturing of hardware. The US leads in the creation of software and computer chips. 



The interdependencies of these technological superpowers is extensive. For example, the US multinational technology company Apple makes its hardware in China, whereas many Chinese companies use computer chips made by US companies. 



The British political economist David Ricardo in 1817 came up with a theory of comparative advantage. Comparative advantage states that for countries to be mutually prosperous, they should concentrate on those goods that they have comparative advantage over and trade those that they are not good at producing. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The 4IR Strategy To Move Forward (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2019/05/23/the-4ir-strategy-to-move-forward/" target="_blank">The 4IR Strategy To Move Forward</a>



This, therefore, means that trade wars are bad for the overall prosperity of the global economy. Given the fact that trade wars are becoming more likely, how should African countries position themselves so they are not adversely affected by them?



The first strategy African countries should adopt is they
should be non-aligned to global superpowers. This essentially means we should
not take sides in these trade wars. 



The late former Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Tito, introduced the concept of non-alignment during the cold war between the Soviet Union and the US. 



They observed that for developing countries to maximize their prosperity, they ought to remain neutral during the cold war and, therefore, not be aligned to either of the two superpowers. African countries are dependent on both China and the US for technology and, therefore, should maintain good relations with both. 



Secondly, African countries should develop sovereign
technological capacity. When the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed
earlier this year, the black box from this plane had to be taken to France to
be analysed because we did not have the technological expertise to do so. 



Naturally, for us to develop sovereign technology, we need
to expand educational opportunities across the continent. 



– Tshilidzi Marwala is a professor and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg. He deputizes President Cyril Ramaphosa on the South African Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Cell

Amid Trade Wars, What Africa Must Do

Apple’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48110709" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iPhone sales have dropped</a>&nbsp;in recent quarters, particularly in China, where cheaper rivals Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi have gained traction. Smartphone revenue fell 17% for the latest three months to $31 billion, but the stock jumped 5% on the results. One big reason: record-high services revenue.



The company’s services division includes its App Store, Apple Pay, iTunes, cloud services and more. It is now the second biggest segment for Apple after the iPhone, with revenue of $37 billion in 2018, and Morgan Stanley expects it to&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/11/08/apples-services-will-grow-to-over-100-billion-per-year-in-2023-says-analyst" target="_blank">top $100 billion in 2023</a>. The projected growth speaks to the power of the Apple brand.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here for the full list of The World&#8217;s Most Valuable Brands</a>



Apple tops&nbsp;Forbes’ annual look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world’s most valuable brands</a>&nbsp;for the ninth straight time.&nbsp;The brand of the tech giant is worth $205.5 billion, up 12% over last year. It is the first time a brand crossed the $200 billion threshold.



Apple has made an art form of moving its customer base from one product category to another. Mac users adopted the iPod, followed by the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Customers trust the brand will work seamlessly across all categories in the Apple ecosystem, which has helped make the Cupertino, California-based company the most valuable in the world. Services is the next frontier for the company and brand.



While Apple maintains its spot at the top, Google is closing fast with a value of $167.7 billion, up 23%. The Apple brand was worth more than twice as much as the ubiquitous search brand just four years ago.



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Google has cornered the global search engine market with a 92% share over the past 12 months,&nbsp;<a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to StatCounter</a>&nbsp;(Bing, 2.6%, and Yahoo, 1.9%, are miles behind). Like Apple, Google has used its brand to move into other categories of consumers’ everyday life from email to Web browsing to maps to cloud storage.



While many global consumer brands struggle with the changing habits of their customers, the biggest tech brands continue to be juggernauts. Microsoft ($123.5 billion) and Amazon ($97 billion) round out the top four and both jumped more than 20% in value.



One tech brand that was dinged over the past 12 months is Facebook, which ranks fifth overall. It was the only brand in the top ten to fall in value, to an estimated $88.9 billion, down 6% from last year. The number of active Facebook users reached 2.4 billion this year, but the social media brand has been hampered by concerns around data protection, privacy policies and fake news.



Coca-Cola is the top brand outside of tech, with a value of $59.2 billion, up 3%, and ranked sixth overall.



Brands: By The Numbers



The 100 most valuable brands are worth a cumulative $2.33 trillion, up 8% over last year. Tech brands were the top gainers, led by e-commerce giant Amazon, up 37% to $97 billion. Other big winners: Netflix (+34%), Google (+27%) and Adobe (+27%). H&amp;M had the biggest fall, down 12% to $11.5 billion. The Swedish retailer has struggled and cut prices last year on clothing to clear excess inventory. More than 20 brands declined in value, including ESPN (-10%), GE (-8%) and Hyundai (-8%).



U.S. companies landed 56 brands among the top 100, as well as 80% of the top 10. Germany (11 brands), France (7) and Japan (6) were the next most prolific countries of origin. Brands from 16 countries made the final cut.



In addition to the proliferation of tech brands (20 of the top 100), financial services (13), automotive (11), consumer packaged goods (10) and retail (8) were the most common industries.



Methodology



We began with a universe of more than 200 global brands, which include both corporate and product brands. We required brands to have more than a token presence in the U.S., which eliminated some large brands like multinational telecom firm&nbsp;Vodafone&nbsp;and Chinese e-commerce behemoth&nbsp;Alibaba.



Our first step in valuing the brands was to determine revenue and earnings before interest and taxes for each one. We gathered these from company reports, Wall Street research and industry experts.&nbsp;Forbes averaged earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) over the past three years and subtracted from earnings a charge of 8% of the brand’s capital employed, figuring a generic brand should be able to earn at least 8% on this capital.



Forbes&nbsp;applied the corporate tax rate in the parent company’s home country to that net earnings figure. Next, we allocated a percentage of those earnings to the brand based on the role brands play in each industry. Brands are crucial when it comes to beverages and luxury goods, but less so with airlines and fuel, when price and convenience are more important.



To this net brand earnings number, we applied the average price-to-earnings multiple over the past three years to arrive at the final brand value. For privately held outfits we applied earnings multiples for comparable public companies.



-Kurt Badenhausen; Forbes Staff

960×0

The World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019: Apple On Top At $206 Billion

Apple makes the most secure phones in the world. At least, that’s the common assumption.



But increasingly Android models are as difficult, if not trickier, to break into as the iPhone, according to search warrants and forensic industry sources.



One&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6024482-Angel-Angulo-Phone-Search-Warrant.html" target="_blank">warrant</a>&nbsp;unearthed by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;detailed a case in which cops seized an LG Android phone after swooping on suspected drug dealer, Angel Angulo, who’d allegedly sold methamphetamine to an undercover cop. Upon Angulo’s arrest the police obtained the phone from inside the his Ford Mustang, though the search warrant didn&#8217;t detail what exact LG model.



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The police obtained the LG in January and even had permission to force open the device by holding it up to Angulo’s face or depressing his fingerprint to unlock with facial or fingerprint recognition. 



But agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have not been able to find a way to bypass the lock screen with their current forensic tools and techniques. 



They&#8217;ve now asked for an additional 120 days to access the device, according to a&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6024473-Cellebrite-Gets-Update-to-Help-Get-Android.html" target="_blank">filing</a>&nbsp;from the ATF. (No legal representation was listed for the defendant. The Department of Justice hadn’t responded to a request for comment at the time of publication).



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Huawei Lawyer Says CFO Meng A ‘hostage’ After US Presses Charges (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/01/29/huawei-lawyer-says-cfo-meng-a-hostage-after-us-presses-charges/" target="_blank">Huawei Lawyer Says CFO Meng A ‘hostage’ After US Presses Charges</a>



iPhones less secure than Android now?



Sources in the forensics community tell&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that the security of Google’s operating system has become, in some cases, too strong to allow police (or anyone else with direct access to an Android phone) inside. “Some would say iPhones are less secure,” said one source from a large forensics provider.



Google, like Apple, has been continually adding security features to Android, said Vladimir Katalov, CEO of Russian forensics provider Elcomsoft. One of the key updates to Android over the years remains Secure Startup, which encrypts all internal storage so the data within should be accessible only to someone with a passcode or other form of authentication, like a face or a finger.



The anonymous source noted that a considerable amount of resources go into penetrating the defenses of iPhone operating systems, and once a hack works on one iOS device, it should work on all the others. The same cannot be said for Android, which is fragmented across manufacturers’ home-brew updates and countless phone models. If a police officer or forensics professional finds a way to break into a Google Pixel, for instance, the same hack might not work on any other devices.



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“While some Android phones can be accessed using generic methods, each new model may contain unique features which require a more customized approach,” said Peter Sommer, professor of digital forensics at Birmingham City University in the U.K. “In addition there are instances of standard Android phones being heavily modified to have secure features.”



The issue of Android security is particularly pressing for Huawei, the world&#8217;s largest manufacturer of Android phones, which is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2019/05/22/huawei-disaster-will-impact-android-in-one-clear-way/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">set to lose access to Google&#8217;s security updates</a>&nbsp;on newer devices. That’s because of the Trump administration’s ban on American companies doing business with the Chinese telecoms giant.



iPhone still trumps Android in some cases, though. When&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;tested a range of Android phones’ facial recognition systems, there were clear disparities in the security of the technology across the different devices. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/12/13/we-broke-into-a-bunch-of-android-phones-with-a-3d-printed-head/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">3D-printed head was able to open all the Android phones tested</a>, but it worked much quicker and in all light conditions on a OnePlus 6, whereas Samsung and LG phones were tougher to crack.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;also tested Apple’s facial recognition with the fake head. In that case, it proved impenetrable.



&#8211;Thomas Brewster;Forbes Staff

960×0 (1)

Google Is Making Android As Difficult To Hack As iPhone—And Cops Are Suffering

Huawei’s CFO “should not be a hostage” in Sino-U.S. relations, her lawyer said on Tuesday, after the United States announced criminal charges against herself and the Chinese firm just days before crunch trade talks with Beijing. 



The Justice Department charged Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and its chief financial officer with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business through a subsidiary it tried to hide and that was reported on by Reuters in 2012 <a href="https://reut.rs/2sRL7Ve">reut.</a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="rs (opens in a new tab)" href="https://reut.rs/2sRL7Ve" target="_blank">rs</a><a href="https://reut.rs/2sRL7Ve">/2sRL7Ve</a>and 2013 <a href="https://reut.rs/2sUq8RT.">reut.rs/</a><a href="https://reut.rs/2sUq8RT." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="2sUq8RT (opens in a new tab)">2sUq8RT</a><a href="https://reut.rs/2sUq8RT.">.</a>



In a separate case, the Justice Department charged the telecommunications equipment maker with stealing robotic technology from T-Mobile US Inc. Huawei has said the companies settled their dispute in 2017.



CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1, a move which was followed by China arresting two Canadians on national security grounds. She is scheduled in court on Tuesday to discuss her bail terms, and is subject to a U.S. extradition request.



Her lawyer Reid Weingarten, partner at Steptoe &amp; Johnson, pointed to “complex” Sino-U.S. relations.



“Our client, Sabrina Meng, should not be a pawn or a hostage in this relationship. Ms. Meng is an ethical and honorable businesswoman who has never spent a second of her life plotting to violate any U.S. law, including the Iranian sanctions.”



Huawei said it had sought to discuss the charges with U.S. authorities “but the request was rejected without explanation”.



It said it “denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the asserted violations” and “is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng.”



China’s foreign ministry urged the United States drop the arrest warrant and end “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese companies. Spokesman Geng Shuang also said China had issued stern representations to both Canada and the United States after the U.S. formally issued its extradition request for Meng.



Canada’s Justice Minister has 30 days from receipt of the request to decide whether to grant authority to proceed. If granted, Meng’s case would be sent to the British Columbia Supreme Court for a hearing, which could take weeks or months.A woman walks past a Huawei shop in Beijing, China, January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter



The development is likely to upset talks between Beijing and Washington this week as part of negotiations intended to walk back trade tensions between the globe’s two largest economies.



U.S. President Donald Trump said in December he could intervene in Meng’s case if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.



U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the charges are “wholly separate” from the trade negotiations.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">MARKET RESTRICTION</h4>



Huawei makes equipment including base stations, switches and routers, as well as consumer products such as smartphones, and derives nearly half of its total revenue outside China.



Its global reach has come under attack from the United States, which is trying to prevent U.S. companies from buying Huawei equipment and is pressing allies to do the same. U.S. security experts are concerned the gear could be used by China’s government for espionage &#8211; a concern Huawei calls unfounded.



Australia and New Zealand followed the U.S. lead in restricting market access over the past year. On Tuesday, TPG Telecom Ltd canceled the Huawei-based mobile phone network it was building, in the first commercial casualty of Australia’s move.



Huawei nevertheless said it is the world’s leading provider of 5G technology, winning 30 contracts globally &#8211; more than any of its competitors &#8211; including 18 in Europe.Slideshow&nbsp;(13 Images)



It is unclear how the U.S. charges would impact its business. Last year, Chinese peer ZTE Corp was prevented from buying essential components from U.S. firms after pleading guilty to similar charges, crippling its operations.



ZTE resumed normal business after paying up to $1.4 billion in fines and replacing its entire board, on top of a near $900 million penalty paid in 2017.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">BANKING RELATIONS</h4>



U.S. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said the alleged criminal activity at Huawei “goes back at least 10 years and goes all the way to the top of the company.” The charges against Meng and Huawei cite the Reuters stories that said Huawei’s Skycom unit sought to sell goods to Iran.



The indictment noted that denials from Huawei in the stories were relied upon by financial institutions “in determining whether to continue their banking relationships with Huawei and its subsidiaries.”



The indictment featured a meeting in August 2013 between Meng and an executive from an unidentified bank. Sources told Reuters the bank is HSBC Holdings PLC, which paid $1.92 billion in 2012 for violating U.S. anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws.



During the meeting, Meng misrepresented Huawei operations in Iran and ownership and control of Skycom, the indictment showed.



The Justice Department has confirmed that HSBC is not under investigation in this case, HSBC said in a statement last month.



Also according to the indictment, in July 2007, the FBI interviewed Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and U.S. authorities said he falsely told them Huawei did not violate U.S. export laws.



The indictment concerning trade secret theft alleged that Huawei had a formal policy instituting a bonus program to reward employees who stole confidential information from competitors.



FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Huawei cases, filed in New York and Washington state, “expose Huawei’s brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace.” -Reuters



-Diane Bartz, Sarah N. Lynch, and Sijia Jiang; Additional reporting by David Shepardson, Karen Freifeld, Chris Bing, Joseph Menn and Andy Sullivan, and Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard

gettyimages-1085837012-594×594

Huawei Lawyer Says CFO Meng A ‘hostage’ After US Presses Charges

Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile operator, said it was “pausing” the deployment of Huawei equipment in its core networks until Western governments resolve concerns about the Chinese company’s activities. 



Huawei is facing increasing scrutiny over its ties with the Chinese government and a suspicion that its technology could be used by Beijing for spying. Huawei has denied the allegations.



Vodafone’s Chief Executive Nick Read said on Friday that the Huawei debate was playing out at a “too simplistic level”, adding that it was an important player in an equipment market dominated by three companies.



Read said its equipment was used in Vodafone’s core &#8211; the intelligent part of its networks &#8211; in part of Spain and some other smaller markets.



“Given that, we have decided to pause further Huawei in our core whilst we engage with the various agencies and governments and Huawei just to finalize the situation, of which I feel Huawei is really open and working hard,” he said after Vodafone reported third-quarter numbers.



Vodafone said its key revenue measure deteriorated in the third quarter, down 40 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 0.1 percent, reflecting continuing price competition in Spain and Italy and a slowdown in South Africa.



Analysts had expected growth of 0.3 percent.



Shares in the company fell to their lowest level since July 2010 after the update, and were trading down 1.1 percent at 142 pence at 0840 GMT.



Vodafone said competition in the Spanish and Italian markets had moderated through the quarter.



“Lower mobile contract churn across our markets and improved customer trends in Italy and Spain are encouraging, however these have not yet translated into our financial results,” Read said.



Nasdaq boosted by chip rally



But he said the signs of improvement underpinned confidence in Vodafone’s full-year guidance.



Vodafone expects around 3 percent growth in underlying adjusted core earnings for the full year, with free cash flow before spectrum costs coming in at about 5.4 billion euros. -Reuters



-Paul Sandle

Tag: Huawei

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Amid Trade Wars, What Africa Must Do

The World’s Most Valuable Brands 2019: Apple On Top At $206 Billion

Google Is Making Android As Difficult To Hack As iPhone—And Cops Are Suffering

Huawei Lawyer Says CFO Meng A ‘hostage’ After US Presses Charges

Vodafone ‘pauses’ Huawei Deployment in Its Core Network