GSM Arena's Trending Phone of the Week feature always gives a good indication of what excites the consumer corps at the time, at least from the point of view of their databases.  To us it's no surprise that Xiaomi offerings occupy the two top spots, but the list has a new entry on the third rung, namely the Samsung Galaxy J6, which is half referenced in our top story.  OnePlus and Oppo also make their presence known, for a wide brand distribution on the list. We're sure though, that Vivo will soon knock on the door and present its party invitation, with one or two other brands also looking to join the prom.
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We've mounted our rickety soapbox on a number of occasions before and opined on how the lines between communications - and media offerings have become blurred. We consume an increasing portion of our newsfeeds and general media intake though our mobile devices, cable companies are under strain as consumers switch to online streaming, fixed data plans are being jettisoned in favour of mobile LTE offerings, and so we can continue .. It is no wonder, then, that nuptials between companies traditionally in different spheres would emerge, with the emphasis on merge. And  so it has to come that one of the world's biggest mergers has now been signed, sealed and delivered, Telecoms giant AT&T and Media giant Time Warner (owner of CNN, amongst others) have looked deep into each other's eyes, fluttered the eyelashes, delivered a quick ninja kick to the objections of anti-trust lawmakers, and exchanged rings. The judge that finally approved the merger said that with Netflix, Facebook et al, there are plenty of competitors to the new behemoth, but this does not take into account that with net neutrality under attack in the US, those companies might rely to a great extent on AT&T for their very backbone.  This is one of those scenarios where one cannot possibly foresee all possible outcomes, and one trusts that market forces will keep things sane.
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The little companies don't always have to kowtow to the giants and we do so love a good David vs Goliath story. DataProhet is a small South African company, that is to say small when compared to international behemoths, but the company has taken the battle to some Silicon Valley giants and prevailed in a number of important bidding wars. The company brings AI to factory floors, mining data from huge manufacturers and their machines, which allows them to predict where mistakes are likely be made and how to counteract this.  This way we can prevent a swanky car rolling out of the BMW factory looking for all the world as if had been designed by a Picasso fan.
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ENQUIRIES (WTB)
QTY	PRODUCT	SPECIFICATION / DESCRIPTION	TARGET
2 000	Apple Airpod	32GB, Wifi
500 + ea	Huawei Y series
100	Huawei P9 Lite	South African
10 000	LG B220
5 000+ ea	Nokia low end
2 000	Nokia 8810	Any
2 500	Samsung S6310T	Euro preferred
15 000 pw	Samsung various models	Smartcare stock