HTC Corp (宏達電), the leading maker of smartphones running on the Windows Mobile and Android platforms, said yesterday it was working with T-Mobile and Google Inc to determine possible causes for the glitches plaguing HTC’s Nexus One.
Nexus One, which was designed to compete with Apple Inc’s iPhone, was launched last week and its forums have been overloaded with complaints ranging from coverage and delivery problems to network compatibility and from dropped calls to operational woes.
On the forums, Google promises an e-mail response within 48 hours, but offers no telephone service.
Customer service is handled by HTC and T-Mobile, with the former tackling hardware problems and the latter wireless service glitches, HTC said.
The problems could be linked to the software, hardware or wireless network communications, and it was hard to tell which part had gone wrong, but the three parties are working together to sort out the issues and will get back to consumers in due course, HTC spokeswoman Maggie Cheng (鄭雅蓮) said by telephone.
One thing HTC had discovered was that base stations were showing no coverage, which meant there was no third-generation service to consumers, the company said.
The company said Nexus One, the first smartphone from Google, had drawn a positive response in the US since it debuted there on Jan. 5.
Consumers can purchase the phone from Google’s online store without a service contract, or purchase it with a service contract from one of the firm’s operator partners. In a statement on Jan. 5, Google said this sales format would give consumers “the ability to match a phone of their choice with the service plan that best meets their needs.”
For example, Nexus One is sold at a discounted US$179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile.
The online sales, however, mean there are no store or customer service representatives to hold shoppers’ hands through the experience.
USAToday.com reported on Tuesday that HTC would provide telephone support for “device troubleshooting and warranty, repairs and returns,” citing a Google statement.
The Wall Street Journal Online’s Digits blog also reported on Tuesday that HTC would start providing telephone support for the Google phone, without specifying when the service would begin.
Cheng was not available for further comment in response to a separate phone call yesterday.
HTC’s net profit last year shrank 21 percent to NT$22.65 billion (US$0.7 billion) from NT$28.64 billion in 2008. Revenues fell 5 percent to NT$144.88 billion from NT$152.56 billion in the previous year.
The company’s first-quarter revenues are likely to drop 16 percent from the previous quarter, with earnings per share at NT$5.7, Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) said in a client note on Saturday.
“Despite Nexus One’s contribution to HTC in terms of sales, the upside to HTC is limited as Nexus One shipments are small,” Fubon said. “It will also eat into the market share of HTC’s own brand smartphones.”
Shipments of Nexus One are expected to be about 300,000 units a quarter, with the possible maximum of 2 million units this year, the note said.
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to