China, the world's largest mobile-phone market by users, said subscriptions rose to 296 million last month, exceeding the US population for the first time, as China Mobile (HK) Ltd and China Unicom Ltd boosted sales. \nThe nation added 5.4 million accounts last month, bringing new subscriptions this year to 27 million, the Ministry of Information Industry said. \nAt this rate, the percentage of Chinese people who own mobile phones may rise by 50 percent in less than two years, said CLSA Ltd analyst Francis Cheung. \n"There is still a lot of room there," Cheung said, who forecast the number of mobile accounts would rise to 334 million by the end of this year. \n"It's a huge country," Cheung said. \nChina, adding users at a rate of two every second, overtook the US, with a population of 293 million, as the world's largest mobile-phone market by customers in 2001, helped by rising affluence and falling call rates. \nStill, only one in five Chinese has a mobile-phone account, compared with one in two people in the US and about two in three in Japan. \nThe so-called penetration rate in the Philippines is about 30 percent. \n"There is no problem for China hitting at least levels similar to the Philippines," Cheung said. \nMobile services in China are provided by China Mobile, the world's biggest cellular operator by users, and China Unicom. \nChina Mobile's revenue of US$19 billion last year ranked third, after Britain's Vodafone Group Plc and Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. \nChina Mobile's sales may rise to US$25 billion in 2006, according to a Thomson Financial survey of 15 analysts. \nUnicom's sales may rise to US$12.2 billion in 2006, from US$7.9 billion last year, Thomson Financial said.
Semiconductor stocks on Friday took a beating after a grim profit warning from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc sparked fresh worries about the US’ earnings power as the country is potentially heading for a recession. Despite a broader stock market rally, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 3.8 percent after Micron, the largest maker of memory semiconductors in the US, flagged that demand was cooling for chips used in computers and smartphones. The index — which is home to US chip giants Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, as well as Micron — is down 38 percent this year. Historically, semiconductor
WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY: Costco Wholesale said it expected the purchase of the remaining 45 percent stake to add 1 to 1.5 percent to its earnings per share US-based Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday said that it had purchased the remaining 45 percent stake in Costco President Taiwan Inc (台灣好市多) for US$1.05 billion, making the local company a fully-owned unit. “We estimate that the purchase would add about 1 to 1.5 percent to [our] earnings per share,” Costco said in a statement. Costco President Taiwan was established as a joint venture with Kaohsiung-based President Group (大統集團), which held a 45 percent stake. Since the first Costco store opened in Kaohsiung in 1997, 14 outlets have been set up in Taiwan, company data showed. PROFITABLE Three Costco stores in Taiwan — in Taipei’s Neihu
MOBILITY SOLUTIONS: Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its ecosystem through the platform, the Taiwanese firm said India’s Tata Technologies Ltd has become the latest member of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) MIH Open Platform to jointly develop sustainable mobility solutions for customers worldwide, the Taiwanese company said yesterday. It might include embedded and electrical, electric platform development and battery management system solutions, among others, Hon Hai said. Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its electric-vehicle (EV) ecosystem through the MIH platform, it said. The open platform has about 2,380 members around the world, with an aim to jointly develop EV ecosystems and shrink the time to market for products. Hon Hai made the
SOARING PROFITS: Semiconductors and shipping have knocked automaking and construction out of the 10 highest paying industries, stock exchange data showed Mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) posted an average of NT$5.15 million (US$173,249) in annual compensation for non-managerial employees last year, marking the highest among all firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), exchange data showed. That is a 66 percent increase from the company’s average compensation of NT$3.08 million in 2020, as its earnings per share (EPS) expanded from NT$26.01 in 2020 to NT$70.56 last year. That is also three times higher than the average compensation of NT$1.7 million in the nation’s semiconductor industry, the data showed. The increases helped MediaTek advance its ranking from third in 2020, replacing
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