The US switch to digital TV is driving the growth of Taiwan’s digital terrestrial set top box (STB) industry, a recent report by the Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 資策會資訊市場情報中心) said.
The US Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ATSC) demand for converter boxes is boosting Taiwan’s shipment volume to an estimated 1.27 million units in the first half of the year, up 56 percent from the same time last year, said MIC, an information and communications technology (ICT) industry research institute based in Taipei
This overwhelming demand translates to a shipment value of US$42.80 million or an increase of 47.6 percent over the same period last year.
Taiwanese firms directly benefiting from the US shift are Good Mind Industries Company (格得電子), Zinwell Corp (兆赫電子), Cal-Comp Electronics and Communications Co (泰金寶), Skardin Industrial Corp (致振企業) and Prime Electronics (百一電子).
With the US subprime debacle and the ensuing global economic downturn, many consumer electronics firms are facing a slowdown in general consumer demand. However, worldwide digital terrestrial STB shipment is growing, primarily due to the US government’s aggressive pushing for the digital switchover.
This year and next, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is offering US$40 coupons to consumers to subsidize their purchases of ATSC converter boxes and help speed up the digital transfer.
The ATSC converter box in the US has become one of the main drivers for digital terrestrial TV STB shipment.
The DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) market “has really slowed down” in other regions, said Chris Hung (洪春暉), a senior MIC analyst.
As some Taiwanese makers continue to increase shipments for the US ATSC converter box program, the Taiwanese digital terrestrial STB industry’s shipment volume is expected to reach 3.59 million units in the second half of this year, compared to 1.43 million units for the same period last year.
Full-year shipment is forecasted to reach 4.86 million units, double the amount shipped last year.
MIC sees future growth opportunities for the industry in emerging markets such as Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, Eastern Europe, Russia and China.
“As the TV population in these emerging markets grows, so will the demand for large-scaled digital STB in the near future. When markets mature in developed countries, emerging markets will become new sources of growth for the worldwide STB market. These emerging markets will thus be a major focus for STB makers,” Hung 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