Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation's third-largest mobile operator, yesterday launched its new data-oriented BlackBerry service as part of its efforts to offset a possible decline in revenues next year because of stiffer competition.
"It is very important to offer the [right] services or products to counteract stagnating growth," Taiwan Mobile president Harvey Chang (
More than 80 percent of local mobile carriers' revenues come from voice traffic. But Chang said that Taiwanese telecom companies were expected to report their first year-on-year decline in annual revenues as the telecom market for voice traffic nears saturation.
Chang said he expected Taiwan Mobile's local peers to post flat revenues, or 2-3 percent annual decreases, next year partly because of an increase in the use of Internet telephony.
Offering the BlackBerry service "is one of many approaches to boost average revenue per usage (ARPU) for the long term," Chang said, adding that he hoped the company would outperform rivals with the launch of the new device.
Taiwan Mobile is able to sell BlackBerry phones after more than four months of government review, because the company agreed to let judicial authorities access its encrypted system for criminal investigations, Chang said. The company would allow police to access e-mails for any criminal investigation, if necessary, he added.
Taiwan Mobile's ARPU is currently at NT$799 (US$24.5), the company statistics show.
A BlackBerry account with Taiwan Mobile costs NT$899 a month as well as NT$7,990 for a BlackBerry phone. Customers can access their e-mail in real time with the service.
Taiwan Mobile, the only local partner of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM), has set a conservative goal of attracting 10,000 subscribers for BlackBerry services within 18 months, and has targeted big corporations.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電), the world's top contract chipmaker and Accton Technology Corp (智邦) have subscribed to the service.
Taiwan Mobile said earlier this month that revenues fell 1.8 percent to NT$54 billion in the first eleven months, from NT$55 billion a year ago. Net income rose 3.3 percent annually during the same period to NT$15.8 billion mostly due to assets sales, compared to NT$15.3 billion last year.
Taiwan Mobile has gained around NT$2.11 billion by selling shares of rival Chunhgwa Telecom Co (
Without the asset gains, Chang said it was difficult to say whether Taiwan Mobile's net profits would drop next year.
The company still has 2.69 million shares in Chunghwa Telecom, the nation's biggest telephone company.
Shares of Taiwan Mobile were up 1.08 percent to NT$32.5 yesterday on the stock exchange. The stock price of Chunghwa Telecom was unchanged at NT$60.4, while Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) shares inched up 0.13 percent to NT$36.55.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts