FTI Consulting News Bytes – 10th June

This week’s news

One charger to rule them all

Regulators in Brussels announced a long-awaited deal this week, forcing tech hardware giants including Apple to use a common charger across products like smartphones and laptops. The new law will come into effect in 2024 and will see USB Type-C become the common charging port for devices, according to the Financial Times. The new law will impact fifteen categories of products from earbuds to game consoles to e-readers. This follows more than a decade of discussions as regulators called for a common charging device to limit electronic waste as products evolve. The EU commission commented that the move would not only increase convenience and reduce waste but also allow new technologies such as wireless charging to “emerge and mature.” Apple had previously resisted the move, arguing it would reduce choice for consumers who would no longer be able to buy lower-priced, older models compatible with existing accessories.

Musk’s demands met

Twitter has agreed to provide prospective owner Elon Musk with raw daily tweet data following concerns over the platform’s fake accounts. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the platform was preparing to give Musk access to the so-called “firehose” API that contains every tweet as it was posted. Musk’s legal team had submitted a letter earlier this week, accusing the company of refusing to surrender information about its true number of bot accounts. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton also announced that his office would investigate Twitter into “potential false reporting of bots”, according to Sky News. Musk had struck a $44bn legally binding agreement to buy the tech giant in April but had threatened to pull out if Twitter refused to provide more information on fake accounts using its platform.

Apple going it alone in BNPL

Apple announced it is entering the crowded “buy now, pay later” market as part of its new operating system, iOS 16. Apple’s Pay Later will allow users in the US to spread purchase costs into four payments over six weeks, without paying interest or fees, according to the BBC. Short-term loans made through the product will be funded through a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple rather than relying on the company’s banking partners such as Goldman Sachs. Apple can “easily afford to lend off its own balance sheet” according to the Financial Times, with net cash of $73bn at the end of March. Apple said its decision to go it alone was partly driven by the desire to avoid sharing data with third parties. In line with Klarna and Affirm, Apple will not charge fees for late payments but will restrict access to further credit. Pay Later will form part of a new range of iPhone features including the ability to edit iMessages and features intended to help people in abusive relationships.

Uber’s emergency delivery mission

As part of a collaboration with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), Uber is providing a fleet of small vehicles to help the UN deliver emergency food and water supplies in Ukraine. The company’s bespoke version of the Uber Direct delivery platform is offered to the UN free of charge, and provides software which helps co-ordinate distribution, and track deliveries and drivers within a 100km range of its warehouses. Proving efficient, Uber’s platform was already up and running within a few weeks of its first contact with the WFP, the BBC writes. The technology has also been custom-built for free by Uber engineers to meet the needs of WFP operations on the ground.

Sky is not the limit

A new UK Defence Science & Technology agenda, backed by £2 billion of investment and including a new satellite launch, has been commissioned this week. The Science & Technology Portfolio outlines a series of ambitious programmes, encouraging industry collaboration and input to meet future Defence needs. The new portfolio will see defence enhancing its hypersonic research programme alongside significant science and technology investment in AI, cyber, space and other advanced materials. One of the projects in the new portfolio is the Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction Cubesat Experiment (CIRCE) – a miniaturised space weather suite onboard two satellites – which will be launched later this year in partnership with the US Naval Research Laboratory.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Diamond Nagu Siu, Senior Reporter at Business Insider, tweets about Big Tech failing to deliver on its diversity promises following the murder of George Floyd two years ago.
• Search solutions platform, Elastic, tweets that the telecom cloud market is expected to hit $74bn by 2026 through the “endless possibilities of 5G.”
• The Financial Times wrote that a failure to regulate low-earth orbit could have disastrous consequences, tweeting that increasing amounts of space debris could threaten modern life.

Number of the Week

9,000 – Metric tonnes of debris in the space around Earth

What’s happening next week?

• 13 June: CBI Economic Forecast
• 13-17 June: London Tech Week
• 14 June: Oracle Q4 results
• 15-18 June: Viva Technology 2022
• 16 June: Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers

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