South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co yesterday said Taiwan's demand for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) televisions would rebound in the final quarter on the back of the nation's solid economic growth.
Sales of LCD TVs in the Taiwanese market fell short of major TV brands' expectations over the past eight months as consumers were unwilling to spend on luxury items amid high credit card debt, a Samsung official said yesterday in Taipei.
Consumer spending grew by merely 1.7 percent in the first half of the year, and the figure is expected to stay low over the second half, the government's statistics agency, Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, said on Aug. 17.
"As Taiwan has robust economic growth, we remain optimistic about the demand for LCD TVs in the fourth quarter," said Jeon Yong-sung, president of Samsung Taiwan, on the sideline of a press conference to launch its first unite with a 40-inch screen.
The company aims to sell 10,000 40-inch LCD TVs by the end of the year, Jeon said. He added that Samsung expects Taiwan to consume about 650,000 LCD TVs this year, a forecast that is much higher than the average projection of 500,000 units by Samsung's industry peers.
Samsung expects total sales of TV sets in Taiwan -- including both flat-panel display TVs and cathode ray tube models -- to be about 850,000 units this year.
Samsung has a 13 percent share of global LCD TV sales and hopes to boost that to 15 percent by the end of the year. The company forecasts sales of 40 million units for the 12 months to December.
According to Texas-based research company DisplaySearch, the Korean firm was the world's second largest LCD TV vendor in the last quarter. But, in Taiwan, Samsung is only just starting to make its presence felt, competing with more than 30 foreign and local brands, including Sony Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which own the Panasonic brand.
Sony and Matsushita only sold about 300,000 LCD TVs to local consumers during the first eight months of this year.
Jeon said Samsung intended to focus on boosting unit sales in the short term instead of expanding market share.
Jeon also said company research had found that Taiwanese people prefer LCD TVs over plasma-display-panel (PDP) TVs, so Samsung is considering whether to limit the introduction of new models to Taiwan next year.
TV sales will account for about four percent of Samsung's total revenues in Taiwan. The company expects to bring in about US$300 million from its local branch this year.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San