Chunghwa Telecom Co (
"By the middle of this month, Chunghwa will begin intensive promotional activities for color-screen handsets along with big discounts," Shih Mu-piao (
The company plans to spend NT$4 billion on the project this year, he said.
MMS is an advanced data transmission service that allows cellphone users to send text messages, audio files or color photos and graphics. To access MMS, both the message sender and receiver must have color-screen handsets.
The average monthly phone bill for an MMS user is about NT$200 higher than for conventional mobile-phones services, Shih said.
In an effort to attract new mobile-phone users as well as to retain previous customers, phone companies often bundle phone services with bargains on handsets.
For instance, one can receive around a NT$2,000 discount on a new handset as long as a two-year service contract with the operator is signed.
All operators in Taiwan have been offering such discounts for years, but now Chunghwa will offer an even bigger discount, Shih said.
Local Chinese-language media speculate that Chunghwa plans to double its discounts or offers up to an NT$5,000 discount on each color-screen handset.
The proposed price cuts may be as follows:
-- Nokia 7650, currently sold for NT$10,800, may be lowered to NT$8, 000.
-- Panasonic GD 88 currently sold for NT$20,000, may be lowered to somewhere between NT$17,000 and NT$15,000.
The reports speculated that the price changes will be effective on March 15.
Shih refused to confirm or deny the reports, only saying that the company is in talks with several handset makers such as Nokia Oyj and Matsushita Electric Corp (Panasonic).
"If we receive more support from handset makers, the discount can be further increased," Shih said.
Bargain prices are helpful in stimulating the development of the domestic telecommunications industry.
"Price is always a significant factor for influencing consumer acceptance of new products and services," said Lin Yu-feng (林育烽), a telecoms analyst at the government-funded Market Intelligence Center.
Chunghwa's discounts may stimulate demand and boost the color-screen handset penetration rate in Taiwan, Lin said.
Another factor hindering MMS compatibility between operators may soon be eliminated.
Problems with MMS are two-fold. First, handset makers have not created a standard for MMS exchange, resulting in blurry photos when, for example, transmitting from a Nokia phone to a Sony Ericsson handset.
Second, wireless-service providers also have no MMS communication standard, meaning subscribers with different services, such as Taiwan Cellular Corp (
This lack of inter-connectivity has forced industry players to work together on the problem.
"Several operators are already conducting tests on MMS inter-connectivity, and we hope that a solution can be implemented in April," Shih said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”