With a slew of new digital music players to hit local shelves in the next two months, vendors said they were expecting a fresh round of price wars ahead of the Christmas shopping spree.
"Prices of MP3 players will probably go down in December after vendors introduce their new products in October and November," said David Li (
With the competitively priced new iPod series from Apple Computer Inc to hit the local market next month, first-tier brands are gearing up to compete, he said.
Samsung will join its rivals Sony Corp, SanDisk Corp and Apple in launching music players next month in Taiwan.
One of Samsung's new models will be similar to the iPod nano, but will also include video capabilities, while another features a set of compact speakers that slide out from the back of the device, Li said.
"We will need to see what impact the new iPod series has before finalizing our pricing strategy," Li said.
Apple yesterday announced a local price guide for its new iPod series. The new video-enabled iPods will have 2.5-inch screens that are 60 percent brighter than previous models.
The latest iPods will come with a storage capacity of 30GB, priced at NT$8,800 (US$268), or 80GB, at NT$12,400.
The batteries on the 80GB model will make video viewing of up to 6.5 hours possible.
Meanwhile, iPod nanos will be available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB varieties, priced at NT$5,400, NT$7,000 and NT$8,800, respectively. A new iPod shuffle with 1GB of memory will sell for NT$2,900.
Apple said it has sold more than 60 million players since releasing its first iPod in October 2001, 1 million of which were iPod shuffles.
Research firm iSuppli Corp said last Wednesday that the latest iPod nanos featured a new design that delivers increased functionality at reduced cost compared with the previous generation.
However, the latest iPods fall short of being true video-centric players, which are in demand among consumers who want to watch movies, not just video clips, the research firm said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is