TiVo fans can expect a cheaper price tag for the digital video recording service in the next few months, when a second model with lower storage is made available.
The service's exclusive local distributor, TGC Taiwan Inc (替您錄科技), is set to release a second model of its set-top box, with half the amount of storage of the current model, or 80GB, so consumers can expect lower prices, Travis Lin (林新建), the firm's general manager, told a press briefing yesterday.
Currently, TiVo is only available in a 160GB format here, which can record up to 180 hours of programs on low-resolution mode.
The box retails for NT$12,900 (US$396.40). There is no subscription fee for the first year, and a subscription fee of NT$1,500 per year starts in the second year.
TGC's launch of the second model comes in response to feedback from consumers, as some said they did not need a large amount of storage to record videos, while others hoped to acquire the set-top box at a lower price, according to Lin.
"Offering customers a second option will help us enlarge the subscription base," he said.
TiVo is a set-top box that can record TV programs digitally onto a hard disk. Viewers can then skip commercials and pause, rewind or fast-forward programs. Other services include a TV program guide, reviews of the latest TV shows or automatic recording for an entire season of a series.
Launched in the US in 1999, TiVo has more than 4.5 million subscribers, translating into a 40 percent share of the digital video recording market there, according to Lin.
The service debuted here last December and Taiwan is the first Asian country the firm has expanded into, thanks to the nation's mature broadband environment and high cable TV penetration rate.
Lin said that initial plans to expand the service into Singapore and Hong Kong this year were on hold, as the company aimed to "focus on Taiwan's market now."
But he said that TiVo would make its first appearance in certain cities in China in the second half of this year.
Lin was tight-lipped on the subscription base in Taiwan, saying only that the "response was positive."
However, a shop manager at a Tatung Co (
Tatung, along with Synnex Technology International Corp (
"There is a lot of explaining to do for general customers regarding what TiVo is all about. But the machine is popular among those who have lived in the US before and who know its special features," said the manager, who refused to be named.
The store had sold only two TiVo units in the past six months, he said.
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