High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電) said yesterday that the launch of Apple Inc's iPhone would be a catalyst, rather than a threat, for the faster uptake of phones compatible with high-speed Internet links and using strong computing functions.
The world's biggest maker of handsets powered by Microsoft Corp's operating system made the comments amid market speculation that iPhone would whittle away at the market share of HTC's new product, Touch.
`boon'
"We think the sale of iPhone will boost growth of the [smartphone] market, which will be a boon to everyone [in the industry]," HTC spokesman Cheng Hui-ming (鄭慧明) said yesterday.
HTC shares were up yesterday at NT$561, ending seven straight losing sessions since June 22, a week prior to the sale of iPhone.
"Shipments of HTC Touch may fall short of company expectations in June as channels in Europe await the impact of the launch of the iPhone," said Vincent Chen (
HTC projected it would sell 300,000 units of Touch per month starting in the next quarter.
concerns
Some analysts have expressed concerns that Touch could lose to iPhone as the HTC phone would be less attractive for most mobile phone users. Its lack of multi-touch technology to switch between different functions could affect sales, Chen said.
"For the moment, sales have been quite good," Cheng said, refuting speculation that supply constraints in key components would limit smartphone shipments.
HTC will retain its lead in the current quarter, Cheng said. HTC told investors in April that quarterly revenues would be up 5 percent year-on-year and 15 percent from the first quarter.
Long before the launch of Touch, local industry analysts had been comparing
Touch with iPhone, as both are equipped with a touch panel that replaces the
standard keypad and are 2.5-generation and Wi-Fi wireless Internet
connection-compatible.
To prevent Touch from directly competing with iPhone in the US market, HTC
rolled out the phone early last month in Europe, HTC's biggest market. The
US will be the last market in which it introduces the product.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc said shoppers may have bought as many as 700,000
iPhones in the product's opening weekend, double the broker's earlier
projections, while iSuppli estimated Apple will probably sell 4.5 million
iPhones this year and more than 30 million units by 2011.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained