Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No. 2 PC brand, decided to scrap a plan to form a joint venture with Hong Kong-listed TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷), the world’s largest contract monitor maker, to establish an LCD TV manufacturing plant in Russia.
Both firms had been negotiating since the third quarter last year, but Acer pulled out of the venture after TPV said it would take two to three years to complete the establishment, according to -Taiwan -representative office officials based in Moscow, who cited the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Acer had hoped the plant would manufacture 100,000 LCD TVs a year initially. The local plant in Russia would have helped save the company 5 percent on import taxes, making its selling prices more competitive.
Samsung Electronics Inc and LG Electronics Co have set up manufacturing facilities in Russia, the officials said.
The top five LCD brands in -Russia are Samsung with 32 percent market share, LG with 16.5 percent, Phillips with 14.6 percent, Sony with 10.5 percent and Toshiba with 8.1 percent, according to Kommersant.
Arthur Pai (白忠良), assistant vice president of Acer’s digital display unit, did not return queries from the Taipei Times.
Last month, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) said it planned to form a US$16 million LCD TV module assembly venture in Brazil with TPV to provide just-in-time services and customer support there.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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