From the launch of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus’s flagship OnePlus 12 range to reports that major companies including Microsoft and Salesforce are laying off large numbers of staff, the past week has seen a number of major events shake up the tech world. Here’s a round-up of the week’s top tech news stories.
1) OnePlus 12 series launch:
OnePlus launched its OnePlus 12 series at the ‘Smooth Beyond Belief’ event on January 23. The two smartphones: OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R come with a powerful chipset, vibrant display and a 100W fast charger which is claimed to refill the battery in around 26 minutes.
The OnePlus 12 is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC while the OnePlus 12R is powered by last year’s premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
Pricing of the OnePlus 12 starts from ₹64,999 while the OnePlus 12R starts at a price of ₹39,999 in India.
2) Microsoft layoffs:
Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, news website The Verge reported on 25 January, citing an internal memo from the head of the company’s gaming division CEO Phil Spencer.
According to the report, though the tech firm is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.
3) Salesforce layoffs:
US cloud-based software company Salesforce is laying off about 700 employees, or nearly 1% of its global workforce, Reuters news agency reported, citing Wall Street Journal. The job cut at Salesforce follows a wave of layoffs in tech companies in the US including among behemoths such as Amazon and Google.
Last year, Salesforce trimmed its workforce by cutting 10% of the jobs and shut some of the offices. However, in September 2023, the company said it would hire more than 3,000 people after cutting jobs in January last year to drive up margins.
