■ Biotechnology
Ground broken on new park
A local biotechnology company dedicated to the development and manufacture of "instant Chinese medicines" kicked off construction on a new factory in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan County yesterday. Tainan-based Kaiser Pharmaceutical Co (港香蘭應用生物科技) is investing around NT$600 million (US$18.8 million) to build the plant on approximately 16,500m2 of land within the park, Kaiser chairman Tsai Chung-yi (蔡宗義) said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
■ Computers
Apple opens new NYC store
Apple Computer Inc, maker of the iPod music player, opened a 24-hour subterranean store in New York City, marking five years in retailing with an outlet built beneath a 9.75m glass cube. Lines of customers stretched at least four blocks outside the Fifth Avenue store, near Central Park, which opened its doors at 6pm New York time. The outlet is the company's 147th and will be the first to stay open 24 hours a day, according to Apple senior vice president Ron Johnson. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, 51, opened the first store in May 2001 and adds a new outlet every nine days, mainly in Japan, Canada, the US and UK. Macintosh computers sold in company stores have a gross margin of more than 35 percent, compared with 27 percent on Macs sold by other retailers, said Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf in New York.
■ Eye care
ReNu claim backed in study
A US government health analysis released on Friday echoed assertions by Bausch & Lomb Inc that an outbreak of severe fungal eye infections appears to be linked solely to its new-formula contact lens cleaner. The company's shares rose 3.6 percent. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the results of its case-control study indicate that some of the unique components in ReNu with MoistureLoc make the solution more susceptible to contamination by fusarium, a fungus known to cause blindness. Use of other solutions in the ReNu product line, including the older and more widely used MultiPlus brand, did not show "a significantly increased risk for disease," the Atlanta-based agency said.
■ Automobiles
Kia's US plant on hold
Kia Motors Corp said that legal problems related to a slush fund probe in South Korea are hampering decisions regarding construction of its first factory in the US. Kia, an affiliate of South Korea's largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co, announced in March that it would build a US$1.2 billion plant in West Point, Georgia, that would create about 5,500 jobs. Kia said production would begin in 2009. The arrest and indictment of Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo in relation to a slush fund investigation, however, is having an impact on the project, but has not derailed it, Kia said on Friday.
■ Computers
Dell to use AMD chips
Dell's announcement that it will use microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices for the first time highlights the struggles of the leading personal computer maker, and could shake up the sector. Dell shares rose on Friday after the hardware giant issued a steady forecast, unveiled a cost-cutting plan and said it would use AMD chips in its high-end servers. At midday, Dell traded up 0.5 percent at 24.07.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day