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.
‘BIG LOSS’: This year might see the last generation of Huawei’s Kirin chips, as their production would stop next month because they are made using US technology Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to US sanctions and would be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive has said, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei’s business from US pressure. Huawei, one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of US-Chinese tension over technology and security. Washington last year cut off Huawei’s access to US components and technology, and those penalties were tightened in May, when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using US
CORPORATE SCANDAL: Cathay Life has invested NT$13.3 billion in Bank Mayapada since 2015, but the latest loss of NT$8.8 billion has completely written off its investment Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday said it would recognize an investment loss of NT$8.8 billion (US$298.1 million) in Indonesia’s Bank Mayapada Internasional Tbk PT due to concerns about the lender’s operations amid a corporate scandal. The company said it would revise its earnings result for June, from a net profit of NT$6.52 billion to a net loss of NT$520 million, its first monthly loss over the past 17 months. After booking an investment loss of NT$5.2 billion in Bank Mayapada earlier this year, Cathay Life has so far recognized total investment losses of NT$14 billion in the lender, executive vice president
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported that revenue last month expanded 25 percent annually, but fell 12.8 percent month-on-month to NT$105.96 billion (US$3.59 billion). In the first seven months of this year, the chipmaker’s revenue surged 33.6 percent to NT$727.26 billion, compared with NT$544.46 billion a year earlier. TSMC has said it aims to grow its revenue by more than 20 percent this year. The company has since May 15 stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies Co (華為), its second-biggest customer after Apple Inc, due to the US’ restrictions on exports containing US technologies. TSMC has no plans to
The US stock market has been on a tear, yet the country’s economy is in the dumps. So why do so many people believe — undoubtedly incorrectly — that the stock market has decoupled from reality? The economy many people experience, while bleak, is local, personal and, for the most part, either not publicly traded or plays only a small part in the stock market’s moves. To explain why these personal experiences have so little effect on equity markets, we must look more closely at the market role of the weakest industry sectors. The surprising conclusion: The most visible and economically vulnerable
RSS