market

Sandisk has risen 1,000% in the stock market since the summer. Its advantage is called Kioxia

by

In just five months, Sandisk shares have soared 1,000% in one of the most astonishing recoveries in Wall Street history. The company has been the latest big beneficiary of the AI ​​boom and the rush to build data centers full of advanced AI chips… and also the memories that accompany those chips. That’s where Sandisk’s great asset comes in, called Kioxia. Value of Sandisk shares in the last six months. Source: Google Finance. Without knowing it, SanDisk was ready for the revolution. HBM memories were traditionally the favorites to accompany GPUs that were the great “brain” of AI, but the scarcity of these components with high bandwidth has meant that the spotlight has been focused for a few months on DRAM and NAND memories, two types of storage in which sanDisk is a dominant player. Like other manufacturers in its segment —Micron is one of the outstanding—, SanDisk has suddenly found itself in a situation that benefited it enormously. free money. The memory chip market works like a commodity market in which leverage can be significant. That means that when prices rise, companies like SanDisk don’t need to invest in new factories or employees to earn more — although they can build them if they deem necessary. It is as if for Micron or SanDisk this phenomenon is equivalent to “free money” because they are receiving much more income for the same products they sold a year or two ago. Not even they themselves expected it: SanDisk CEO David Goeckeler talked about the rise of AI in June, and commented “We try to estimate demand. We think demand is good. What we need is to get supply to match that.” He couldn’t anticipate what would happen with memories starting in September. DRAM and NAND memory prices are skyrocketing from the end of 2025. Source: Sherwood. The key alliance: Kioxia. In recent times SanDisk has grown significantly in your solid state drive business (SSD) for enterprise data centers. But it also maintains a historical strategic alliance with the Japanese company Kioxia, which allows it to obtain NAND chips at a much lower cost than its rivals. The profit margin skyrockets, and so do the shares on the stock market. A relationship with ups and downs. The relationship between Sandisk and Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Memory) is based on a Joint Venture from more than 20 years ago focused on the development of NAND memories. This alliance has achieved advances such as the memories BICS Flash (with 3D storage technology), the wafers that leave their factories are shared between both companies. Kioxia went through a difficult time after Toshiba’s financial crisis and failed merger attempts with Western Digital. They survived all this, and together with Sandisk now the Japanese company controls 30% of the global NAND market. Some win, others lose. The investment fund Elliot Management pushed in early 2025 for SanDisk will separate from Western Digital. They believed that at that time it was worth about $20 billion—as when he bought it a decade ago—, and that fund sold its stake just before the total market explosion. Today that stake would be worth more than $340 million. Bad business for users. But in addition to that background, the ones who have it most complicated are the users, who will continue to suffer the consequences of this phenomenon for months, and perhaps years. Neither Micron nor Sandisk/Kioxia appear to have any intention of significantly expanding production capacity. They already did this during the pandemic and that caused excess inventory when demand fell after confinement. Now they do not want to expose themselves to the same thing, and there is talk that the price increase will continue throughout 2026 and may let’s take a long time in seeing memories at prices “like those before”… if we end up seeing them. Image | Igor Shalyminov In Xataka | Japan has taken out the checkbook to once again dominate the chip industry. Prepare a plan of 325,000 million dollars

Chinese mobile phones conquered the market by dividing into a thousand different brands. Now they are doing just the opposite.

by

A few days ago OPPO made it official: after the merger with OnePlus (although with “independent” operation“), now brings Realme under its umbrella. Thus, both Realme and OnePlus go from going on their own to becoming sub-brands within a differentiated organizational chart. If the beginning of the decade was one of separations, with the division (forced by circumstances) from Honor and Huawei and the “independence” of POCO and Xiaomi following the steps of Redmi and Xiaomithe roaring 20s have taken a turn of the script to do just the opposite: associate even more (with one exception that swims against the current: Nothing and CMF). The quotes are important insofar as these separations, although announced with great fanfare, hid a reality of sharing certain processes and technologies to a greater or lesser extent. Why is it important. OPPO is the fifth best-selling mobile brand in the world, according to CounterPoint data for the third quarter of 2025. And if we go to 2024, Canalys data They show that OPPO (at that time together with OnePlus) had a global market share of 8%. With the merger, the three teams will work together although each continues to develop their own devices to share resources and thus reduce costs. But also, the direct consequence can be sensed in this graph: there is a small piece of Realme’s 4% pie that increases OPPO’s portion. Canalys As confirmed by OPPO and Realme to Xataka Mobilethis decision is a strategic measure to “make better use of resources and amplify synergy (…). This allows OPPO, Realme and OnePlus to present a unified and improved offer, offering more innovative and differential products and more optimized and user-focused customer service worldwide.” In short, to be more competitive. The context. Oppo’s share grows and approaches the top 3 of Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. In a saturated market with reduced margins, competitiveness low-cost It’s brutal. and with runaway RAM pricessurvival depends on being strong to negotiate in the supply chain and reinforcing an ecosystem to build loyalty. Xiaomi already did it when POCO website loaded to integrate with the matrix in a simplification movement. In fact, OPPO is doing a Xiaomi by differentiating its sub-brands: the main one is the premium one, POCO is the one that offers some groundbreaking features at an eye-catching price and Redmi for tight budgets. The brand has not yet commented, but the history of each one leads us to think of premium devices with the OPPO seal, the good cost-performance ratio of Realme and OnePlus as a kind of flagship killer with differential functions. Inthree lines. In the complex ecosystem of Chinese mobile manufacturersthe huge conglomerate BBK Electronics It makes up a series of brands of different importance: there are the strong ones, led by OPPO and Vivo, and other smaller brands that have been developing their trajectory such as OnePlus and Realme, but also Iqoo. Although each had their own communication, sales and marketing strategies and some development elements, shared production, logistics and R&D&I processes. With this move, OPPO, Realme and OnePlus will share a structure. In Xataka | In the midst of a protectionist retreat, Xiaomi wants to be the new Huawei and knows where to start: with its own chips In Xataka | “The mobile industry was boring and monotonous.” Oppo is willing to change it Cover | Xataka and Wikipedia

a good part of its billion in revenue comes from the only market that still goes to the movies

by

If we are ever going to have a negative answer to the question of “Can James Cameron stop killing it at the box office?” It certainly won’t be in the short term. ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ has once again swept theaters, and although perhaps a couple of aspects of the triumph need to be pointed out, it is indisputable that we are facing a new success: it has already exceeded one billion dollars. The figures. The third installment of ‘Avatar’ has reached 1,083 million dollars at the global box office after 18 days in theaters. The figure is divided into 306 million dollars in US territory and 777.1 million in international markets, confirming the traditional foreign dominance of the franchise created by James Cameron. The milestone comes slightly later than its predecessors (‘Avatar‘He achieved it in 17 days and’The sense of water‘ in just 14), which makes us wonder if ‘Fire and Ashes’ will manage to replicate the extraordinary long-term performance of its predecessors, which remained in first place at the box office for seven consecutive weekends. Gear change. The rhythm of ‘Fuego y ash’, as we have commented, contrasts with that of its predecessors. The 2009 film ended its run with a historic gross of $2.9 billion, while ‘The Sense of Water’ ended with $2.32 billion. Both films demonstrated exceptional resilience, remaining at number one in the ranking for seven uninterrupted weeks, an increasingly unusual phenomenon in the streaming era. The big question now is whether ‘Fire and Ash’ will manage to join the exclusive club of 2 billion movies. The first indicators suggest a decrease compared to the second installment, which in turn had already experienced a drop of 580 million compared to the original. If this trend is confirmed, ‘Fire and Ash’ would be the first ‘Avatar’ installment to stay below the two billion threshold, which could redefine the commercial expectations of the franchise, which as we already saw It is not enough to be one of the hits of the year to be profitable. The importance of China. As has been usual in the franchise, the success of ‘Fire and Ash’ depends largely on the foreign market: for example, in this installment 71.7% of revenue comes from outside the US: China leads the list with 138 million dollars, followed by France with 81 million, Germany with 64 and South Korea with 44. Only in China, the third ‘Avatar’ got the best premiere of the saga in the countrywith $57 million in its opening weekend. The IMAX format was crucial: generated 23.5 million dollars23% of the total Chinese collection. A success that is more significant considering that the Chinese market has remained practically closed to foreign productions in recent years. By the way, has already been dethroned. Disney sweeps away. One more year, this is not news, but let’s confirm the Disney’s absolute dominance at the box office. This third ‘Avatar’ is also the studio’s third film to surpass $1 billion this year, following the live-action remake of ‘Lilo & Stitch‘ (1,030 million) and ‘Zootopia 2’ (1,420 million, at the moment). That is, more than $6.58 billion at the global box office, a figure that has not been reached since before the pandemic. And without the need for Marvel (with three premieres that did not reach the expected figures nor the collections of other times) nor ‘Star Wars’. No other study has managed to produce a single billion-dollar movie since 2023 but it is worth remembering, of course, that Disney has not been short of failures at the box office: ‘Snow White’, ‘Tron: Ares’ and ‘Elio’ were well below expectations, which poses a paradox. Disney scores the biggest hits and the main failures of the year, making it clear that Disney has the blockbuster formula, but its brand is no longer infallible. Prudent Cameron. Despite the success, James Cameron maintains a cautious stance on the continuity of the saga. Before the premierealready said that “first, we have to make money from this. We each have to prove this absurd business case again.” Cameron recognizes that the industry has changed and that the theater market is going through a moment that makes any forecast possible. As revealedwould call a press conference to reveal the complete plots of ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘5’ if they were not finally made. Another option would be to novelize the scripts, a project for which he maintains a certain enthusiasm. In Xataka | James Cameron has committed to the 48fps format for ‘Avatar 3’. Many viewers find it disturbing

The RAM memory market is broken and there are those who point to a new player: Asus

by

The RAM memory market it’s gibberish. The voracity of the data centers has caused energy companies to rethink your renewable goals and? RAM memory increases meteorically in price. This short term is so attractive that Micron, one of the three RAM giants, recently announced that killed its branch of Crucial consumption. And, king dead, king in place: leaks suggest that Asus would be considering its arrival in the RAM market for 2016. It’s not going to be easy at all. In short. The middle Sakhtafzarmag is the one that has sprung the hare: Asus would enter the DRAM market over the next few months. The medium now filter previously information about new processors from AMD and Intel so, although we are talking about a rumor, it is not a medium that comes out of nowhere. At a time when reports point to a RAM shortage until the end of 2027it is not uncommon for other players in the PC market to become interested. It makes sense. And Asus is one of the greats. Your income surpass 18,000 million dollars annually and is present as one of the largest PC hardware manufacturers. Apart from its motherboards and GPU, Asus sells complete desktop and laptop computers (for gaming and office automation) and consoles (there’s the recent Asus ROG Xbox Ally). The RAM segment is one that I had not entered, but the way of doing it has other precedents: Corsair. As I say, Asus starting to sell RAM memory makes sense if we take into account that Crucial, one of the most powerful brands in the consumer segment, has ceased to exist. Crucial was a Micron brand focused on the user: if you wanted RAM, you could buy one from Crucial and mount it on your PC, but with this rise of AI, Micron has seen that the mine is in the data centers. Your explanation is that it is a movement to “improve supply to strategic customers.” The reality is that it is a chore for all PC users. Corsair style. If you have built a PC, it is easy that you have opted for Corsair RAM memories. This brand has monitors, boxes or power supplies, but also memories. However, it is not a memory manufacturer: is an assembler. What Corsair does is design its own PCB, stability systems and heatsinks, and then to that PCB solder the RAM modules from manufacturers such as Samsumg, SK Hynix or Micron. three paths. Entering a new segment is not easy, but Asus has three paths: Be a assembler. Buy memories from large manufacturers and integrate them into your own PCBs. This is what it does, for example, with its graphics cards (Nvidia chip, but its own PCB and dissipation system). ‘Pass’ from big manufacturers that are having difficulties supplying data centers and opting for other emerging ones. For example, the Chinese company CXMT, which has recently achieved validate DDR5 memory modules (and which is on the US blacklist). It would be a win-win for both: Asus validates this Chinese company in the international market and CXMT gets a high-profile international partner. The third is the most risky: Become a memory manufacturer. Asus has the financial resources, but not the experience to do it. It would be the best to create a more controlled product, but in the end it means facing a greater risk. wasp nest. As we said from the beginning, the arrival of Asus in the RAM memory segment is a rumor that arrives just when RAM supply chain is broken. It is something that affects us as consumers because we see exorbitant prices, but ‘Big Tech’ also has to pay more for RAM, there is a lot of speculation about the price of machines like Steam Machine that will be launched right in this price hurricane (some RAM modules are more expensive than any console) and even memory manufacturers they may face difficulties in their products, such as Samsung. The arrival of another assembler does not change the balance of power that the big three – Samsung, Hynix and Micron – have since Asus would buy from them, but if it associates with Chinese companies, things change, and a giant like Asus will be lat the gateway of a CXMT or Fujiuan Jinhua would add pressure to the current oligopolistic system. Decongestion? Difficult. Now, just because a new player enters this playing field does not mean that prices will drop immediately. Everything will depend on how they enter, but if they assemble memories from the three most established manufacturers, there will still be no decongestion in the market because they will be more likely to distribute the same finite product. If they enter through a Chinese manufacturer, the situation could be alleviated as long as the stock is not broken. In any case, if they are really going to make some move for 2026, it wouldn’t take long for us to have official news – and CES is just around the corner. We have contacted Asus, we will update when we hear back. Images | Hector Reyes In Xataka | AMD’s problem is not that it doesn’t make good GPUs for AI. It’s not even close to NVIDIA

RAM has become so expensive that it already distorts the market. “Pre-assembled” computers have just appeared on the scene

by

There are times when a seemingly secondary component reveals that the market no longer works as it used to. RAM is starting to fill that role. Its price and availability his no longer an assumed detail to become a factor that alters basic business decisions, from how the final price of a PC is set to what is included, or not, in a standard configuration. When that happens, we are not just talking about rising prices, but about a silent change in the rules of the game. The clearest sign of this shift has come from Paradox Customs, an integrator founded in 2019 in Deer Park (New York) that has opted for something unusual: allowing the customer to configure a computer without RAM memory. The company explains it in its account in Xdue to continued shortages and escalating prices, offers the option to select “no RAM” in the purchasing process. It also presents it, for those who already have modules or can obtain them on their own, a direct way to overcome a market that no longer guarantees stable supply at predictable prices. Click to see the original message in X When RAM rules. The increased cost of memory not only adds to the budget, it also decompensates the internal logic of a configuration. A PC that was previously adjusted by changing the CPU or graphics card may now be out of range solely because of the RAM, forcing you to cut back on other components or rethink the whole thing. In this scenario, memory stops being a silent accompaniment and begins to dictate decisions that affect the overall performance, the usage profile and the perception of value of the final equipment. Strategies to survive. Faced with the same problem, the market is reacting in very different ways. CyberPowerPC, for example, notified of price changes as of December 7, 2025, attributing them to “market conditions.” Framework, however, He assured that the price of his memory has not changedbut it withdrew the sale of stand-alone modules from its store to stop resellers and reserve inventory for those who buy the memory along with their laptops. There is no single solution, only adjustments to buy time in an unstable scenario. The pressure of AI. Behind this tension there is not a single factor, but a profound change in demand. Data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence require large volumes of memory, and that is reordering priorities in the industry. Another pressure is being reported in the sector, part of the production capacity of manufacturers such as Samsung or SK Hynix would be directed towards HBM, a higher margin memory designed for accelerators and servers, which reduces the margin for conventional consumer RAM. The effect is not immediate, but it is cumulative, and ends up being noticeable in the domestic market. This context does not affect all actors equally. Specialized integrators, like Paradox, buy components on the open market, so any swings in pricing or availability are often quickly translated into their offering. Large manufacturers, such as Dell or HP, operate with scale, much higher volumes and supply chains designed to operate at a global level, which tends to better cushion these types of fluctuations. This difference helps to understand why some react with visible changes in the configurator and others do so in a more gradual and less explicit way. Visible changes. The scene left by this change is clear, the pre-assembled computer seems to be entering a different stage, except in these months. Memory has gone from being an invisible component to a factor that rewrites catalogs and business decisions. For now, the public signals that some manufacturers are leaving point to an unstable scenario, with defensive measures and warnings of price changes. Images | Paradox Customs In Xataka |The RAM memory crisis seemed to have its months numbered. Micron has a completely different perspective

“During the process with Amazon we did not bring innovation to the market for 18 months”

by

There’s something liberating about talking to someone who doesn’t have to defend decisions they didn’t make. Gary Cohen He came to iRobot in 2024 to be its CEO when the founder, Colin Angle, He jumped ship after the collapse of the deal with Amazon. Now, more than a year later, from an office in Bedford where he has just renewed his lease – a gesture of permanence in the midst of chaos – he has spoken to Xataka with the frankness of who has had to choose between dignified death and pragmatic survival. “My goal is to make Colin proud,” he says of the departed founder. “He calls it ‘his baby.’ I want to make him feel like we were able to turn this company around.” It’s a curious statement coming from who just sold that baby to Picea Roboticsthe Chinese manufacturer that will now own the company that invented the home robot vacuum cleaner. Dead in the closet At one point in the conversation, Cohen drops an image that sticks: “I have hundreds of dead lawnmower robots in this building.” It refers to Terra project, iRobot’s failed attempt to expand beyond vacuum cleaners. These technological corpses are the perfect metaphor for a company that was ahead of the market… but did not know how to convert that advantage into products that arrived on time. Original sin was go all in on elegant but impractical technology. Colin Angle, a brilliant roboticist at MIT, insisted on camera-based navigation as Chinese competitors adopted LiDAR. Exactly the same as Tesla’s approach to Chinese cars, by the way. “Consumers want to map their homes in twenty minutes, not two hours,” Cohen explains with the wisdom of someone who comes from selling razors at Gillette, not robots. Two hundred software engineers worked at Machine Learning to make that vision work. Meanwhile, companies like Ecovacs or Roborock were overtaking them from the right with cheaper products and, to iRobot’s pain, technologically superior according to many customers. “During the period with Amazon, the management team took its foot off the gas and we didn’t bring innovation to market for about 18 months.” This confession about the 18 months of paralysis while they waited the approval of the sale to Amazon for 1.7 billion It’s devastating. The company was frozen, unable to react as the market moved at Chinese speed. It was not until the last year, already working with Picea, when iRobot incorporated LiDAR into its range. When European regulators ended up blocking the operation to “protect competition,” anddestiny was sealed. The irony hurts: those European regulators prevented an American company from buying another American company, and the result is that it has ended up being absorbed by a Chinese company that played its cards well. When I point out this paradox, Cohen responds cautiously and diplomatically: “This was not a hostile takeover. We went to them.” The creditor’s embrace The relationship with Picea began like many dependency relationships: out of necessity. iRobot I owed them 161 million in manufacturing costs when Cohen took over. They needed to completely reinvent themselves, and they needed to do it quickly. In less than a year they launched eight new models“finally giving the people what they wanted, including LiDAR navigation and scrubbing combo products.” But the final blow came from the tariffs. 46% on imports from Vietnamwhere they manufacture for the US market. $23 million extra in costs in 2025 alone. “Some potential buyers looked at our business and said ‘we don’t want to take risks until the tariff situation is resolved.’” The candidates evaporated one by one. When the last potential buyer couldn’t close the deal, Cohen made the pragmatic decision. “We told Picea: you have a great partnership with us, why don’t you buy from us?” And in one month they closed the deal that turns the supplier, creditor and competitor, all in onein owner. The promise of continuity “Is business as usual. iRobot is here to stay. “We don’t expect any disruption.” Cohen insists Roombas will continue to work, apps will maintain their service and support will continue. For the millions of users (in Spain, where “Roomba” has become as synonymous with a robot vacuum cleaner as “Kleenex” is with a handkerchief) this is the only thing that matters. The offices will remain: Bedford, Tokyo, Madrid, London. Or so the CEO claims. The MIT engineers who form the ‘iRobot Labs’ will continue working. “We have intellectual property that we contribute. They have patents. Together we will be able to differentiate products much more.” The official narrative is optimistic because think about the perfect marriage between American innovation and Chinese efficiency. But when I ask how much of the new product line was actually developed by iRobot, the answer says a lot without saying, “It’s been a partnership.” The most innovative features, such as the compactor container wave retractable scrub roller coverwere developed by Picea. The value of being late “You have to treat every day as if you were second or third, not as if you were first.” It is the advice that Cohen would give to technology entrepreneurs, born from his experience at Gillette when they had 60% of the market but acted as challengers. At some point, iRobot forgot that lesson between its IPO in 2005 and its forced sale for a fraction of its peak value. “My goal,” Cohen says near the end, “is to make customers like your mother happy.” You are referring to my comment about how difficult it was for my mother to set up her Roomba. It’s a modest promise for a company that dreamed of revolutionizing domestic robotics, but maybe realism is exactly what they need now. There is something moving about Cohen defending a company he didn’t build, trying to save half a thousand jobs, promising to honor the legacy of a founder who is no longer here. “Colin was a visionary,” he says, then honestly adds that they couldn’t execute that vision. The future has a … Read more

Telefónica leaves Wall Street through the back door. Goodbye to almost four decades in the largest market in the world

by

Telefónica has started the procedures to delist your shares from the New York Stock Exchangewhere it has been listed since 1987. The securities will stop trading on Wall Street in a matter of days once the documentation is filed with the SEC. The telecom will only maintain its listing in Madrid, in the Spanish continuous market. Why is it important. The movement closes a symbolic chapter that began when Telefónica became the first Spanish company to be listed on the largest market in the world. But the symbolism was left behind: today maintaining that presence involves high administrative costs and regulatory demands that no longer compensate. The trading volume in New York is residual and investor interest is practically non-existent. The context. Telefónica’s stock has fallen more than 90% in the last fifteen years. Its current valuation is on the floor, very far from that giant that in the nineties became the most valuable company in Spain. The dividend, which for years was the main attraction for conservative investors, has been successively cut, the last time this quarter. Buying in Madrid is more direct, cheaper and with the same liquidity as in New York, where securities are hardly traded. Between the lines. This decision fits into the strategic plan presented in November by Marc Murtra, focused on aggressively reducing costs. Telefónica has been lowering its blinds on all fronts: Sold subsidiaries throughout Latin America except Brazil. Reduced the dividend. Presented an ERE which is ending its negotiation phase. And now it is abandoning stock markets where being present no longer adds value. Also will stop trading in Lima. The figure. 4,554 departures are contemplated by the ERE that was agreed this Wednesday with the unions, 26% of the workforce in Spain. Cost savings are the obsession of the new management: 3 billion annually until 2030. Yes, but. Investors who have ADR certificates (American Depositary Receipts) will be able to exchange them for common shares in Spain or hold and trade them in US over-the-counter markets. Telefónica will provide both options, although it is evident that it prefers the first. The background. The exit from Wall Street is not an isolated or recent decision: The telecommunications sector has lost interest from investors, especially in Europe. It is a mature business, highly regulated, with tight margins and little ability to surprise. Telefónica today is a very different company from the one that debuted on Wall Street: smaller, more regional, more European. Its new strategy focuses on four markets (Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil) and on consolidating itself as a reference operator with profitable scale, in addition to increasing its focus on technological solutions. Marking agenda. Wednesday’s day at the Distrito Telefónica offices north of Madrid was hectic. The contrast. When Telefónica went public in New York in 1987, it placed certificates worth $375 million, the largest influx of European capital on Wall Street up to that time. The telecom was then majority owned by the State and its debut was seen as a milestone of internationalization. Today it leaves unnoticed, recognizing that the regulatory burden and administrative costs of the SEC outweigh any benefits. Go deeper. The obligation to report detailed information to the SEC was useful at the time: thanks to it, data such as the price that STC or SEPI paid to enter the capital were known, information that the Spanish CNMV would never have required to reveal. But that level of transparency also has a cost, and Telefónica has decided that it is no longer worth paying for. In Xataka | The Government has had an idea so that the next blackout does not leave us without mobile data: let the operators pay Featured image | Telefónica, Lo Lo

Scooter, Chinese and with the last name “ADV”. The Zontes 368G is destroying the Spanish market for good reason

by

Spain It’s scooter country. They are cheap to maintain, they hardly use fuel and some of them did not need a driving license to buy them. And I speak in the past tense because the DGT It already requires you to take a small driving course for new drivers who want to get a 125cc motorcycle with the B license (the car license). Taking into account that for years it has been possible to drive scooters without a license and the economy of maintenance, it is more than logical that these small vehicles have occupied the top 3 sales for years. What was not so predictable is that a Chinese manufacturer, launching an A2 license scooter, has blown up the ranking of the best-selling motorcycles in Spain and has catapulted itself to the top 3, very close to the historic Japanese Yamaha. We talk about Zontes with his 368Gand take a good look at the photo, since once you recognize it you will not stop seeing it on the Spanish streets. The reason for this motorcycle. Zontes has been in Spain since 2018 and, since then, has had a very modest presence. In China, The culture of copying has nothing to do with how we perceive it in Spain: For the Asian country it is a way of recognizing that a product is well made. For years, traditional Chinese education was based on memorization, tracing and exact reproduction of classical texts. Copying was the correct way to learn, and if a student could exactly replicate their teacher’s work, it demonstrated respect and having achieved a high level of skill. So, analyzing that the best-selling A2 scooter in Spain is the Honda 350 ADVZontes decided to make his own. The anti-ADV. A motorcycle for the city, road and (some) countryside, all with an aesthetic similar to Honda’s most expensive ADV, the X-ADV. The Zontes 368G is the third best-selling motorcycle in Spain according to Anesdor, dangerously close to the Yamaha Nmax. That’s key for several reasons. It is the best-selling Chinese scooter in Spain. It is the first time that an A2 license scooter is close to surpassing a B license scooter in sales. This Zontes model has surpassed Voge, a Chinese manufacturer that seemed unbeatable in Spain. While Chinese manufacturers are betting on a fragmented distribution strategy, Zontes has bet practically everything on this model. Why is it devastating?. Zontes has touched the x pillars necessary for a motorcycle to sweep sales in Spain. The price is absurdly low. Zontes asks 5,529 euros for a 368G with almost 40 HP and fully equipped. On a technological level, it is one of the most ambitious proposals on the market: heated grips, 8-inch TFT screen with mirroring connectivity, rear camera, front camera, keyless start, electric seat opening, full LED lights. Expansion of dealer network in Spain and good response from technical service. The small print. Like practically all Chinese manufacturers (except for some high-displacement models from Voge), the toll to pay for buying an Asian motorcycle is that you have to go to the workshop quite a bit. The Voge’s maintenance is every 4,000km, compared to 12,000km for its direct rival, the Honda ADV 350. A point to keep in mind for all those drivers who drive close to 10,000km annually. 2026 is coming even stronger. Zontes has made a splash in 2025, and has even more reason to do so in 2026. They are going to increase the maintenance interval to 5,000km thanks to an oil cooler. The bike will come with a heated seat. New display. Cruise control. Suspension improvements. On the other hand, in China, it is sold at the same price as the current model, so hardly any price increase is expected. 2026 will be a key year in the motorcycle world: it is more than likely that Chinese manufacturers will take the top 1 for the first time. Zontes is not alone. Zontes has become a manufacturer capable of surpassing giants such as BWM, Kymco and Kawasaki in registrations. But just look at the top 10 units registered in Spain to understand that it is not alone. Position four is occupied by Voge, a Chinese manufacturer that has managed to place its 900 DSX as the best-selling trail in Spain. In 10th place, QJmotor is beginning to make its mark. The future of the motorcycle in Spain is inevitable: it passes through China. Image | Zontes In Xataka | Chinese motorcycles are sweeping Spain: who is who in this puzzle of brands

At Honor they are convinced that they are going to lead the market for folding devices. This is your plan to get it

by

“Spain is an open and very good country for foreign brands, but also very challenging due to competition and focus on low prices.” With those words he responds Laurence Li, new Honorary Country Manager for Spain and Portugalto the answer of how he sees the new market ahead. Until about four months ago, Laurence oversaw Honor’s operations in the Gulf regions from Dubai and previously led Huawei’s Consumer Business Group in Latin America. Today you have a huge challenge ahead of you. Honor has been operating for four years in our borders as an independent brand and the executive is clear about how far he wants to take it. Because Laurence Li is firm in his position: “Honor should be one of the top three consumer brands in Spain, not just a mobile brand.” Competing at the top starting with Spain Honor Magic V5 | Image: Xataka At the beginning of the year We had the opportunity to speak with Tony RanCEO of Honor in Europe, who already told us two things. The first, that Europe is going to be the second most important market for the company. The second, that it is not going to descend into the mud of the entry range and low prices, where there are hardly any margins. The company knows that the juicy segment is the high-endthe premium product, and that is where they are going to focus. All this starts in Spain, “a really good market for all Chinese and foreign brands” due to its openness. All Chinese brands have had a very good acceptance in our countryand if not, tell Xiaomi, Huawei, Omoda, Jaecoo, MG or BYD. These companies destroyed their respective markets by offering low prices and competent products, only to later make the leap to premium products once they had established themselves. The case of Xiaomi is the most obvious. Honor is going to save that step by being fully aware of it. “If you are looking for an entry-level phone with the lowest price, other brands would be a better option, to be honest. Now, if you want to buy something of quality, with innovation, that is, a good product, a product with AI, Honor will be the best alternative,” says Laurence. The firm is aware that right now its market share is what it is. The latest data They claim that Apple (27%), Samsung (26.5%) and Xiaomi (23.7%) lead the Spanish market. The fourth brand is Oppo with 5.7% and the fifth position is occupied by Motorola with 2.2%. Honor, for its part, reaches 1.3%. It would help to achieve a better position by launching cheaper products, attacking the already saturated entry range, but the firm’s strategy does not go there. Honor does not want to be a brand linked to low price, but to quality. Honor Magic V5 | Image: Xataka “Right now, people don’t change their cell phones that often. They do it every three or four years, maybe even every five. If you are going to use your cell phone for five years, you would prefer a better product and you would even pay more,” explains Li, who believes that the financing options offered by companies and retailers can help cover the expense. While the low-end market is being pushed by operators with the aim of increasing the number of 5G devices, Li says, the market for “high-end and premium” products is increasing because more and more people want good quality phones and are willing to pay more because it will last three or four years. The logic is clear. Honor’s logic is evident: the customer will be willing to pay more if they know that the product will last longer One might wonder if Laurence Li, coming from the Dubai offices and managing Honor’s operations in the Gulf; and having previously worked in Latin America, he has noticed some difference in consumer behavior. “I don’t think there’s a big difference,” he explains. Quite the contrary, he believes that there is an important similarity between the three cultures. The executive makes the comparison with cars. “In Dubai, and even here, more and more people are buying Chinese electric cars made in China.” In his own words, “more and more people want to buy innovative products and accept Chinese products (…) People want to try Chinese products, and that is a good trend.” What Laurence Li is telling us between the lines is that The perception of ‘made in China’ is changing. What was once synonymous with a cheap and regular product, today is pivoting to a premium, solvent and capable of standing up to the most established brands from South Korea, Japan or the United States. We are seeing it in all segments: white goods, televisions, sound, automotive, mobile phones and, soon, we will see it in household appliances. Lead the market based on folding and artificial intelligence This is Honor’s humanoid robot, developed entirely by them and visible in their store | Image: Xataka If competing in the low range is getting down in the mud and getting dirty, doing so in the premium range means playing in the same league as devices from Samsung and Apple, two names that are not easy to overshadow. One of Honor’s plans to achieve this is to conquer foldables. “We will be leaders in foldable devices, we will be there, we will be the strongest,” says Laurence while pointing out the Honor Magic V5 which I use as a personal phone. In just four years, Honor has gone from being born to launching the thinnest folding terminal on the market. It is a device that breaks with all the conventions that a novice user of a terminal like this could have: the battery lasts, it feels resistant, it is light, thin, it is comfortable to use, it has a good camera and, when folded, it is attached to a conventional mobile phone. Looking at it with perspective, improving a product like this seems complicated. Folding and … Read more

Breaking the console market seemed impossible. The Steam Machine has the potential to do it: Crossover 1×31

by

The arrival of the Steam Machine It took us all by surprise a few days ago. The console and PC hybrid developed by Valve may become a real meteorite for traditional consolesbut be careful because not everything has been said. Valve, which became famous after the development of the mythical ‘Half-Life’ended up becoming the great PC video game distributor of our time thanks to Steam. Although they already tried to attack the gaming PC market with their Steam Machines a decade ago, now the approach is very different. That first attempt came too soon, but things have changed a lot since then. Valve has made its Steam OS operating system (based on Linux) an excellent alternative to the one offered by Windows on PCs. Above all thanks to Proton, the layer that allows you to play Windows games on Steam OS as well as on Windows… or even better. We have seen the first clear example of the experience that Valve could offer in this sense in the Steam Deckwhich have been a modest success (about 6 million consoles sold), but which have sparked interest in portable consoles that even Microsoft has decided to manufacture with partners like ASUS. Now the Steam Machine proposes to be a promising alternative to the Xbox Series S/X and the PlayStation 5 and combine the best of both worlds: a console-type experience and almost the entire catalog of video games available in the world of Windows PCs. The only question is whether he will make it, and that’s where enters the price factor. It is a fact that we will know at the beginning of 2026, and it will be from then on that we will know if this machine works or not. We are talking about all of this precisely in this Crossover 1×31we hope you enjoy it! On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | The question is not whether Tim Cook will soon stop being CEO of Apple, but who will succeed him: Crossover 1×30

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.