In light of expected weakness in the consumer market this year, Hewlett-Packard (HP) Taiwan, the nation's third largest laptop vendor, plans to strengthen its foothold in the commercial segment to sustain growth this year, a company official said yesterday.
"The commercial market is our main target this year, in view of slower demand for laptops in the retail segment," said Dennis Chen (
The commercial market is expected to grow 10 percent to 15 percent this year, driven by the replacement demand, Chen said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The nation's commercial segment, which consists of government and corporate clients, is estimated to account for around half of Taiwan's notebook market, with over 500,000 units last year, according to HP Taiwan.
Chen also acknowledged the company has sensed some concerns from some corporate clients over rival IBM Corp's sale of its PC unit to Lenovo Group (聯想), which will provide an opportunity for HP to expand its commercial laptop business.
The company yesterday unveiled several new notebook computer models with Intel Corp's latest Sonoma platform, an upgraded Centrino mobile technology central processing unit, and enhanced security functions. The units cost between NT$43,900 and NT$71,900.
HP Taiwan outperformed Acer Inc and IBM Taiwan last year, taking first place in the nation's commercial PC market. The company had a 12.6 percent share of the commercial market in the fourth quarter of last year, up from 11.3 percent in the previous quarter, according to International Data Corp.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the