Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecoms operator, said yesterday it intended to start offering Apple Inc’s popular iPhone on Saturday to cope with growing appetite for the device.
Bigger rival Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) is scheduled to launch the iPhone on the same day.
The launch will bring to an end Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) exclusive right to sell the iPhone in Taiwan, which it obtained two years ago.
Far EasTone vice chairman Jan Nilsson told investors on Feb. 25 that the iPhone business model remained slightly questionable among telecoms operators.
“Their branding and attraction, however, is extremely strong, so it has become a necessity for telecoms companies to include the iPhone in their product portfolio,” Nilsson said.
Far EasTone launched a pre-selling in the middle of last month and has received more than 18,000 orders since, which greatly exceeded expectations, company spokesperson Alison Kao (高治華) said by telephone.
To address growing demand for bandwidth following the sales of data-oriented smartphones like iPhones, Far EasTone intends to increase its investment in network upgrades by about 34 percent to NT$8.6 billion (US$269.3 million) this year from NT$6.4 billion last year, Kao said.
Far EasTone yesterday posted a net income of NT$794 million for last month, up 5.6 percent from NT$752 million a year ago. Revenues, however, dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year to NT$4.68 billion last month from NT$4.84 billion.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS