The long queue at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (
Hordes of fans lined up as early as 9am to be able to have the chance to purchase one of a limited number of Apple Computer's latest MP3 music player, the iPod Nano, which went on sale at 3:30pm.
All 100 units of the gadget were snapped up, according to Chinese-language media reports.
The new iPod Nano comes with a color screen and a size smaller than a standard No. 2 pencil, making it easy to fit into a pocket. Retailing for NT$6,900 (US$207), the 2GB model holds up to 500 songs, whereas the 4GB one is sold for NT$8,600 and stores up to 1,000 songs.
"Affordable pricing combined with large storage is the main attraction of the gadget. IPod Nano is a breakthrough in MP3 players as it comes in such a compact size yet offers huge storage," said Simon Yang (楊勝帆), an analyst at the Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所).
Currently, Korean-brand MP3 players in the local market are priced at around NT$8,000 for models with 1GB of storage.
IPod fever is expected to sweep through Taiwan's market over the next two years, driven by the product's exquisite looks, user-friendly interface, mini size and large storage, he said.
To date, over 21 million units of the iPod have been sold worldwide since it was first launched in October 2001, according to Apple's statistics.
"iPod and its related peripherals have become an industry in itself," Yang said.
Peripherals for the MP3 player have quickly become big business, with other companies making more than 1,000 different accessories -- such as fashion cases, lanyard headphones, armbands, speaker systems and automobile integration kits -- for the player.
There are now more than 700 products bearing the "Made for iPod" logo on the market or in development, assuring customers that an electronic accessory has been designed specifically to connect to an iPod and has been certified to meet Apple performance standards, according to the company.
Yang said that as the iPod has become a valued accessory, the attraction of the gadget is no longer limited to Apple users, but also includes general consumers who like the item's image.
Some say that hot sales of the iPod may force other similar gadgets that offer only 256MB or 512MB of storage to become entry-level products.
Unless vendors selling these items slash prices to below NT$1,000 from the current NT$2,000 to appeal to buyers who are price-conscious, they will find it hard to survive, he said.
The Nano will be available in local stores next month.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150