Despite having prototypes ready, the world’s second-largest PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it would not rush onto the e-reader bandwagon for now, as it was still studying the feasibility of a successful business model and a total product solution.
The size of the e-reader market is not that big and the industry has yet to come up with a proven business model, Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) told reporters yesterday.
Acer is watching whether the public would embrace e-readers and from a profitability standpoint, the company is not ready to launch e-readers, despite having the hardware ready, Wang said.
Last month, electronics maker BenQ Corp (明基) and publisher Yuan-Liou Publishing Co (遠流出版) debuted e-readers in Taipei.
Meanwhile, Acer is expecting a decrease in notebook shipments this quarter of 5 percent, from the earlier projected 10 percent decrease.
New laptop products in the pipeline include a less than 2cm-thick consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) model, and another running on Intel Corp’s next generation of Core microprocessors.
Wang said the inferior computing power of CULV models has been holding them back, but that the new Core processors would resolve the issue by offering better computation as well as a long-lasting battery life.
The company projects that the commercial PC segment will see an upturn starting in the second half of the year, especially in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS