Apple Inc will receive newly developed 10-inch touch screens from Taiwan during the third quarter, Reuters reported yesterday, citing an unidentified person close to Taichung-based display maker Wintek Corp (勝華科技).
Apple does not comment on market rumors or speculation, Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for the maker of the iMac computers in Hong Kong, said by telephone yesterday. Jay Huang, a spokesman at Wintek, did not return calls seeking comment.
The article mirrors reports from Dow Jones Newswires and the Chinese-language Commercial Times, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, that Apple may introduce a touch-screen netbook in the second half.
Apple does not offer netbooks, a booming category of laptops that perform basic functions and typically sell for less than US$500 each.
The company is working on the laptops with Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Wintek, Dow Jones reported yesterday, citing two people close to the situation. Carol Hsu, a spokeswoman at Taoyuan-based Quanta, and Huang at Wintek declined to comment on the report yesterday.
Sales of netbooks will almost double this year, even as the total PC market shrinks 12 percent, research firm Gartner Inc said this month. The machines shot to popularity last year with sales of 11.7 million units, and shipments will hit 21 million this year, Gartner said.
Analysts including Brian Marshall at Broadpoint AmTech in San Francisco have said Apple may introduce a netbook.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has sought to quash that rumor, saying in October that Apple did not know how to make a US$500 computer that was not junk.
Quanta is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of notebook computers. Wintek is the world’s second-largest maker of flat panels for mobile phones.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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