HTC wins GSMA award
Local smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) was named on Thursday as Device Manufacturer of the Year by GSM Association (GSMA), a top award in the global mobile communications industry.
HTC beat out two other finalists, Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, to take the top honor in the device manufacturer category at this year’s Global Mobile Awards ceremony in Barcelona, Spain.
“HTC has built its market presence from nowhere, with fresh branding and marketing and a strong portfolio of devices across many platforms,” the GSMA judges said on the awards’ Web site. “In particular, it has proven an exceptionally popular and enduring phone manufacturer.”
The judges also said that the HTC Desire smartphone “set the bar for Android phones across much of the world in 2010.”
This is the second straight year HTC has picked up a major GSMA award. Last year, its Hero model was named Best Mobile Phone.
Elpida sell NT$4.26bn in TDRs
Elpida Memory Inc, the world’s third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, has sold NT$4.26 billion (US$145 million) of Taiwan depositary receipts (TDR) to fund research and development.
The Tokyo-based chipmaker sold the securities for NT$21.30 each, according to a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday. The company had set the pricing range at NT$19.50 to NT$26.00 earlier this month.
The listing in Taiwan, where the chipmaker has a joint venture and outsourcing agreements with Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), may deepen alliances with local firms, Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto said in October.
Elpida said last month it is close to a deal with Powerchip that would make the Taiwanese manufacturer an exclusive supplier.
Twenty TDRs represent one common share of Elpida. The TDRs will start trading on Friday. Elpida fell 5.3 percent to ¥1,254 (US$15.04) in Tokyo on Thursday.
Fubon, Najing Zijin team up
Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) life and property insurance units signed an agreement with Nanjing Zijin Investment Holding Co (紫金控股) to jointly set up a life insurance company in China, -Taipei-based Fubon Financial said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) plans to invest 320 million yuan (US$48.67 million) in the venture with Nanjing Zijin Investment, while Fubon Property and Casualty Insurance Co (富邦產險) plans to invest 80 million yuan, the parent company said in an exchange statement on Dec. 10.
Chimei buys new equipment
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) bought NT$763 million of equipment from Applied Materials South East Asia PTE, the panel maker said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
Central bank issues CDs
The central bank issued NT$163.5 billion in certificates of deposit (CD) yesterday, more than the NT$160.8 billion that matured, the bank said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
The bank sold 30-day certificates at 0.74 percent, 91-day at 0.78 percent and 182-day at 0.88 percent, according to the statement.
NT rises against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar ended up NT$0.024 at NT$29.408 against the US dollar after touching a one-month low of NT$29.52 on Monday as global investors sold shares.
Foreigners bought US$434 million more local stocks than they sold yesterday, ending a seven-day run of net sales that slashed their holdings by US$2.68 billion, exchange data showed.
Agencies
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the