Monday, September 21
New Delhi: It flips, it folds, and now it flops. Foldable smartphones-hailed as the future of mobile handsets when they debuted seven years ago-are now seeing their sales charts do some folding of their own.Despite multiple iterations and a drop in the average selling price (ASP), foldable smartphone shipments in India fell 47% year-on-year in 2024, when they accounted for less than 0.5% of the overall market, according to IDC. This was followed by another 20% dip in the first quarter of 2025, as per the market research firm that tracks shipments from manufacturers to distributors and retailers.Counterpoint Research, which tracks retail sales to consumers, reported a 12% on-year decline in 2024, and a sharper 36% fall in the quarter ended March. Analysts expect foldables to remain a niche
A massive fire in a hypermarket in al-Kut city in eastern Iraq has left at least 60 people dead and 11 others missing, the city's health authorities and two police sources told Reuters on Thursday.Videos circulating on social media showed flames engulfing a five-storey building in al-Kut overnight as firefighters tried to contain the blaze.Reuters could not independently verify the videos.— thenewregion (@thenewregion) "We have compiled a list of 59 victims whose identities have been confirmed, but one body was so badly burned that it has been extremely difficult to identify," a city health official told Reuters."We have more bodies that have not been recovered still under fire debris," city official Ali al-Mayahi told Reuters.The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but
