Taiwan is expected to grab the spotlight again in next year's CeBIT, the world's largest trade fair in information and communication technology, as it has the most participants among overseas exhibitors.
"Taiwan has always been the largest overseas exhibitor nation for CeBIT over the years to showcase its power in IT industry, and it is no exception next year," said Paddy Chia (
The preliminary figures indicated that 766 vendors registered for the exposition came from Taiwan, accounting for 23 percent of all overseas exhibitors, she said.
To be held during March 9 to 15 next year in Hannover, Germany, the fair is expected to attract 6,350 companies across the globe, a slight increase from 6,246 in this year, she added.
This year's fair attracted 775 Taiwanese companies, and the number is expected to rise slightly next year.
Major local companies to show off their products will include BenQ Corp (
But not every big consumer electronics maker will join the event.
According to an AFP report on Sunday, Sony Corp of Japan and Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands have both decided to skip CeBIT because they considered the fair as out of step with the fast-moving world of technology and electronics.
Even so, China, which overtook the US to become second largest exhibitor from abroad last year, will continue its No.2 position in CeBIT 2006 with 389 participants.
South Korea will come in third with 211 vendors, followed by the US at 209 and the UK at 197.
The annual CeBIT 2006 will embrace themes ranging from business software solutions, home networking, to Internet telephony and music downloading, said Jorg Schomburg, managing director of Deutsche Messe AG.
According to Schomburg, highlights of next year's fair include telematics and navigation solutions for goods and public transportation system, as well as radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions, which is an identifying and tracking technology allowing tiny chips to transmit information with detectors wirelessly.
"Statistics shows that worldwide IT market will grow at 4.8 percent next year, with Asian region [excluding Japan] specifically expanding at 7.7 percent," he said at a press conference yesterday.
The growth will be propelled by telecommunication migration to the third-generation (3G) network, rising wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMax, as well as the digital entertainment solutions for consumers, he said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by