HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s largest maker of handsets running on Microsoft Corp’s system, unveiled two new handsets at the World Mobile Congress 2009 yesterday in Barcelona, Spain, featuring the company’s Touch Flo 3D touch-sensitive technology.
“HTC Touch Pro 2 and HTC Touch Diamond 2 will no doubt bring unprecedented user experience in the world of communication,” HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said in a statement yesterday.
The two smartphones both run on the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform and redefined mobile convergence by focusing on a “people-centric approach to mobile communication,” the company said.
HTC is counting on the launch of the phones to help secure a share in this emerging market. Researcher Gartner Inc said global sales of smartphones would continue to rise this year, although at a slower rate because of the global slowdown.
Aimed at business users and technology lovers, the new handsets also boast “Push Internet” technology that speeds up Web loading on pre-set bookmarks, HTC said.
Meanwhile, Nokia was to introduce an online application store as it tries to match the success of Apple Inc.
The Ovi store will start in May and offer applications ranging from games to location-based services, Nokia said yesterday in a presentation at the World Mobile Congress. The company also unveiled four new devices, two aimed at corporate users with e-mail functions and two with navigation.
Nokia has said its services and software unit should have at least 2 billion euros (US$2.55 billion) in sales by 2011. The business will focus on wireless Internet services for maps, music, games, messaging and media under the Ovi brand.
“The Ovi Store is a ‘smart store’ that will change the way our consumers discover and consume content on their mobile devices, ultimately making the experience easier, more fun and most importantly, more relevant,” said Tero Ojanpera executive vice president at Nokia Services.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”