Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecoms carrier, yesterday launched its first BlackBerry smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM), ending Taiwan Mobile Co’s (台灣大哥大) five-year exclusive right to sell the phone in Taiwan.
The partnership would extend to the sale of RIM’s new tablet device, dubbed the PlayBook, CHT said. RIM’s PlayBook is expected to hit the company’s stores next quarter, said Shi Mu-piao (石木標), a vice president of Chunghwa Telecom.
“The sale of RIM’s BlackBerry will help increase the number of corporate customers for us,” Shih said.
“We think it’s the right time to introduce BlackBerry phones as they are now equipped with the popular touchscreen feature as well as Chinese input, which is important [for Taiwanese], but had not been available before,” Shih added.
The telecoms carrier expects sales of BlackBerry phones to help boost the number of its corporate customers to about 1 million, up by 1 percent from 990,000 users now, Shih said, adding that the new subscription package includes a two-year free data transmission service to cater to the needs of corporate subscribers.
RIM’s tablet device, meanwhile, was targeting average consumers, Shih said.
RIM’s Blackberry Torch 9800 smartphone is now available at 80 outlets from Chunghwa Telecom and its handset retailer affiliate Senao International Co (神腦國際).
Meanwhile, Taiwan Mobile, the nation’s No.2 phone company, yesterday said it planned to introduce a remodeled Blackberry Torch 9800 later this quarter with a white casing instead of black, as well as the newly released BlackBerry Bold 9780, according to a company statement.
Taiwan Mobile also said it would launch RIM’s tablet device at an appropriate time.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
RSS