Toni Hobrecht
Xiaomi Pad 6: first specs
The Xiaomi Pad 5 and Pad 5 Pro revived Xiaomi’s tablet series in 2021. Since then, the Pad 5 Pro 12.4 and a Redmi Pad have been added last year. More Xiaomi tablets seem to be planned for 2023. Tipster Digital Chat Station has shared the first specs of the Xiaomi Pad 6 and Pad 6 Pro.
Both Xiaomi Pad 6 models will offer 11-inch IPS LCD displays with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels and a refresh rate of 120/144 Hz. The panels support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The Xiaomi Pad 6 will likely stick with the Snapdragon 870 chipset, while the Pad 6 Pro will get a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Both tablets are said to offer fingerprint sensors and 67 watts of fast charging.
Sony sells 7.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles in Q4 2022
Sony has finally solved the PlayStation 5 supply issues, selling 7.1 million PS5 consoles in the last three months of 2022. In Q4 2021, the sales figures were still significantly lower at 3.9 million. As a result, Games & Network Services revenue increased by 53% to JPY1,246 billion, up from JPY813 billion in the same period in 2021. In addition, most of the revenue comes from hardware sales and not from digital content as in the same quarter last year.
Overall, Sony has sold 32.1 million PlayStation 5 since launch, up from a total of 25 million PS 5 in November. Sony’s goal is to hit 37 million sales by the end of the fiscal quarter, which ends in March rather than December. The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers fell, but the number of monthly active users increased slightly.
Spotify sets a new record with 205 million premium subscribers
Spotify has released its financial report for the last quarter of 2022. The company exceeded expectations and had 205 million paying subscribers by the end of the year. This makes the Swedes, headquartered in Stockholm, the first streaming service to break the 200 million mark. The monthly active users reached 489 million. This also includes subscribers using the ad-supported version. Spotify had 195 million premium subscribers and 456 million monthly active users at the end of the third quarter of last year. The 33 million gain was Spotify’s biggest Q4 growth ever.
“We always knew that 2022 would be an investment year and 2023 will be a year where we would slow down the investments and thereby operating expenditure while revenue keeps on climbing,” CFO Paul Vogel said in an interview. The company expanded into podcasts and audiobooks, which created new expenses.
This caused the fourth-quarter loss to jump from €39 million in 2021 to €270 million last year. This has been attributed to higher advertising costs and hiring of new employees. However, Spotify also announced last week that it will cut around 6% of its workforce, affecting around 600 employees.
