Google Inc, aiming to expand beyond advertising tied to Internet-search results, plans to start an online store that will sell business software developed by other companies, a person familiar with the matter said.
The store is likely to be unveiled within the next two months, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The business model for the store, which would revamp an existing retail offering, is still in flux, the person said.
In competition with Microsoft Corp’s Office programs, Google says its online word-processing, spreadsheet, e-mail and calendar software has attracted more than 2 million users.
The company now offers a Web site called the Google Solutions Marketplace, which has links to business applications from other companies. Customers make purchasers directly from the Web sites of those companies, rather than through Google.
Meanwhile, the Mountain View, California-based company continued working quietly on tablet computer software that could run rivals to Apple’s latest creation.
Pictures of what a Google tablet might look like were featured at a Chromium developers Web page on Tuesday along with talk of how touchscreen controls could work based on its Chrome computer operating system.
The images were posted online two days before the Jan. 27 event at which Apple unveiled an iPad tablet computer that will begin shipping worldwide next month.
Google made images and video of Google tablet gesture control capabilities available online for developers to consider.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
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