Tatung showcases `digital home' line

In line with the theme of providing digital home solutions, Tatung Co (大同) is exhibiting a whole series of digital products in the hope of luring orders during the five-day Computex Technology Show, which began yesterday in Taipei.

The nation's leading television maker sees information-technology (IT) manufacturing account for 80 percent of its product line, which also includes 9 percent from household appliances and 11 percent of heavy electrical appliances.

At the show, Tatung is showcasing plasma and liquid-crystal displays, MP3 players, high performance blade servers, tablet PCs and wireless mouses.

The company is also displaying a SoundBridge wireless home digital music player, which it collaborates with Silicon Valley-based Roku LLC and supports both Apple's iTune and Windows Media, allowing users to enjoy music without the need to connect with computers.

As the exhibition's organizers estimate that the Computex exhibition will draw 27,500 overseas buyers this year -- up from last year's 26,222 foreign visitors -- Tatung expects orders it garners to increase, but profits might not jump proportionally.

"Global oil prices are one of the key factors. As long as oil prices do not edge up, the market prospect should remain similar compared with last year," said David Wang (王直平), product marketing director of Tatung's server and commercial system business unit.

Company president Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) said he was optimistic. He said Tatung raked in sales of NT$6.8 billion in April, up by 42 percent from NT$4.7 billion in March. He expected that revenues will growing further after next month.