Bottom line: Oppo's major new cricket sponsorship deal shows its commitment to India, but may have to be renegotiated if and when the company's fortunes decline in the next 1-2 years following its meteoric rise.

Oppo in India cricket deal

Smartphone high-flyer Oppo is trying to show the world it's serious about India, with word it will pay 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) for rights to sponsor the nation's national cricket team. News of the deal comes just three months af...

UPDATE: After publishing this earlier this morning, a source in Barcelona informs me that Oppo is indeed attending and is holding a press event to show off their newest products. Headline and photo caption changed to reflect Oppo's attendance, but the rest of the original post remains the same.

Bottom line: The absence of Oppo and Vivo from the world's top telecoms trade show in Spain this week reflects their overwhelming reliance on China sales, while Xiaomi's absence from the show could be ...

Bottom line: Ofo and rival Mobike will use their hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds to buy better and more expensive bikes to flood city streets, even though neither has a sustainable business model that can justify such long-term expense.

Ofo raising $150 mln in new funds

The race for supremacy in China's fast-moving shared bicycle realm is kicking into high gear, with word that second-place Ofo is raising $150 million with an eye on achieving a $1 billion val...

Bottom line: Xiaomi stands a better than 50 percent chance of stabilizing this year and reversing its 2-year-old decline, based on its push into brick-and-mortar retailing and positive reviews for its newest higher-end model.

Xiaomi builds up brick-and-mortar presence

Bottom line: Xiaomi's poor handling of a case involving malfunctioning fitness bands in the US is unlikely to erupt into a crisis, but shows how unprepared the company is for moving into PR-savvy western markets.

Xiaomi wristband suffers from bad race relations in US

Smartphone maker Xiaomi just can't seem to catch a break in the final days before the Lunar New Year. Earlier this week the company made headlines when Hugo Barra, its prized foreign catch who was heading it...

Bottom line: The departure of former Google executive Hugo Barra from Xiaomi marks the end of a chapter for the smartphone maker, which stands only a 50-50 chance of surviving over the next 5 years in the cutthroat market.

Xiaomi's Barra heads back to US

The world was all abuzz in 2013 when Hugo Barra suddenly gave up his cozy position as a high executive at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to join a then-little-known Chinese smartphone maker called Xiaomi. Gossip swirled that his ...

Bottom line: Xiaomi could return to growth mode in China this year on the strength of stronger models, while Huawei's local market share will contract as it focuses on profitable sales and backs away from money-losing businesses.

Huawei meets reduced smartphone target

Two of China's former smartphone leaders are in the headlines going into the weekend, casting a spotlight on the difficulties these past high-flyers face after becoming king of the world's biggest market. I...

Bottom line: ZTE's move into smart cars and Gome's into smartphones follow a typical Chinese pattern of herd mentality investing, and are both likely to fare poorly. 

ZTE buys car maker Granton

A couple of headlines are shining a spotlight on the herd mentality you often see among Chinese companies looking for the next big growth opportunity. One of those has telecoms stalwart ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) buying a small bus maker, parroting a trend among a growing n...