Placing bets that 3D will move into households, tech firms at Computex Taipei are flaunting their latest notebooks, monitors and LCD TVs that utilize such technology. However, pundits said there would be quite a wait before 3D makes it into consumers’ homes.
Taiwanese firms, including Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技), Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) are among those at the world’s second-biggest tech trade fair trying to attract international buyers’ attention with a slew of 3D products.
Gigabyte is displaying a 15.6-inch 3D notebook, which it expects to be on the market by September.
“We are currently planning to launch one model,” Vanessa Lo (羅婉玲), Gigabyte’s procurement project manager, told the Taipei Times at the expo yesterday. “We are going for more than 15 inches as larger panels let users take in 3D images more comfortably.”
Different companies are using various solutions to tailor make the 3D effect, and in Gigabyte’s case, it is adding a 3D filter on the notebook screen to project a 3D image.
That solution means the company can lure buyers with price tags lower than NT$40,000 (US$1,240), although the filter coating comes with the disadvantage of limiting the viewing angle if the audience is too far away from the screen’s center, she said.
Meanwhile, Micro-Star is touting its 3D all-in-one (AIO) PC as the industry’s first such product.
Equipped with a 24-inch LED touchscreen panel, the “Wind Top AE2420 3D” comes with the company’s proprietary 3D Station technology, which it matches with 3D Infinity shutter glasses.
The combination of these solutions will provide consumers with a flawless 3D video experiences, Micro-Star said.
Despite companies placing large bets on 3D wares becoming the next “it” technology, panels gathering at a forum held on the sidelines of Computex yesterday said it would take at least three more years for the technology to gain mass acceptance.
“This year is the year in which 3D products start to gain shape, but the market will mature in three to five years,” STMicroelectronics NV’s regional vice president Yu Lee said.
In terms of indulging in the 3D world without putting on the special-effect glasses, the European chipmaker estimates that it will take four to six years to overcome technological barriers.
“There are a lot of jobs to be done from the panel side to view 3D without glasses,” he said.
Another tricky issue is the lack of 3D content in the market.
Yu said content providers are dedicating more efforts toward such productions in order to accelerate market uptake.
More than 50 Hollywood flicks using a 3D format will be debuted in the next 18 months, he said, adding that broadcasting sports programs, such as the FIFA World Cup, in 3D will help entice soccer fans into the 3D concept.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last