Epson Corp says it will expand its small-sized photo-printer market share from its current 90 to 95 percent by December, thanks to a new tie-in with McDonald's Restaurants (Taiwan) Co, an official at the digital imaging and printing firm said yesterday.
"There are lots of business opportunities in the four- by six-inch photo-printing market," said Kiki Lin (
The company, which currently commands 43 percent of Taiwan's overall printing market, has sold 450 units of small-sized Epson PictureMate printers to date, and aims to boost the figure to 1,000 by the year-end, Lin said.
The target is within reach as it has roped in McDonald's as its new channel.
The new photo printing service will enable consumers who hold "fun parties" at one of McDonald's 346 outlets nationwide, to walk away with free pictures taken by Epson digital cameras and published by its printers.
As the party goers will be entitled to NT$1,000 (US$30) vouchers for purchases on Epson PictureMate, this will help boost the sales, she added.
The new service, which will be funded by a NT$10 million investment from both Epson and McDonald's, is expected to attract 4 million fun-party goers within a year at McDonald's, said Viya Chen (陳薇雅), assistant vice president for marketing and communications.
Epson and McDonald's partnered for the first time last month for a Father's Day event. A similar photo-printing service produced 15,768 pictures, with 63,000 visits reported within just three days, Chen 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],”