Despite gloomy prospects for memory chips due to the global slowdown in personal computer sales, one Taiwan chipmaker is trying to rake in more revenue through personalized "i-toys" that can be connected to the Internet.
Winbond Electronics Corp (
Winbond has been involved in the manufacturing of Internet toy chips since 1999, providing integrated chips for toy designer Hasbro, which uses the chip to display pictures, store voices or access to the Internet.
"This Internet toy [eSpecially My Barney] has been on the US market since Christmas. In addition, it has recently been exhibited in the 2001 American International Toy Fair," said Wen Chen (
"With the creation of this product, I believe it marks the beginning of a personalized-toy era."
Based on the popular purple dinosaur from the US children's TV show Barney & Friends, the new invention enables an electronic Barney to connect to the Internet and download a variety of dialogues and songs.
"Our latest product has allowed customers to choose and edit their favorite Barney voices and music on a free `my Barney' Web site whenever they want," Chen said. "The `i' in `i-toys' indicates not just Internet, but also intelligent and interactive," he added.
Chen said that "eSpecially My Barney" is equipped with 2 megabytes random access memory -- enough storage to play two minutes of music or voice content.
The next generation product, expected out in the second half of 2001, will have a bigger storage size capable of storing 10 minutes of sound.
"The toy market is a worldwide US$60 billion pie," said James Lin (
Ninety percent of IC chips embedded in toys are made by local chip manufacturers, Lin said.
"The Internet-toy chip market is in a growth stage. We hope 30 percent of the growth rate in toy ICs can be reach this year," Lin said.
Toy ICs now accounts for 4.5 percent of Winbond's revenue.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last