Google Taiwan is betting on mobile Internet, with the recent explosive growth in netbooks and smartphones, the company said on Thursday.
The company said it placed a dedicated team in Taiwan to look after its free Android mobile Internet platform — in close proximity to the world’s largest PC and smartphone contract manufacturers — and capitalize on the mobile trend, which it thinks will last for at least 10 years.
Research by Strategy Analytics Inc shows that Google could overtake Microsoft Corp as the No. 1 mobile operating system provider — with more than 50 million plus Android platform units — by 2012.
When Android was first introduced in the second half of last year, less than 10 million units were downloaded. This year the number is expected to grow to around 15 million units.
Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰), general manager of Google Taiwan, believes that for domestic technology companies to come out ahead, they need to develop their own brands, rather than be controlled by brand name vendors. Chien cited Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and HTC Corp (宏達電) as examples.
Although the PC market is dominated by foreign companies, the netbook segment is 80 percent Taiwanese, which was a promising sign for local tech firms, Chien said at a press gathering in Taipei.
“Local original design manufacturers face razor-thin profit margins of 3 [percent] to 4 percent. We believe our free Android platform will give them more breathing room,” he said.
Following up on comments by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, Chien said he truly believes the Internet will be a critical part of global economic recovery. The search giant makes its revenues from Web advertising via its search functions and YouTube.
Google Taiwan said revenue grew 59 percent last year and it was now the market leader in Internet video and online maps.
Google Taiwan had an arrival rate of 52 percent in 2006, but by last year it had increased to 80 percent. The arrival rate is calculated by estimating the percentage of users online during a set period of time who access a certain Web site.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS