ELECTRONICS
Kindle, Simple Touch at war
Amazon.com and bookselling giant Barnes & Noble dueled on Tuesday for the devotion of digital book lovers with bargain-priced versions of their popular electronic readers. Barnes & Noble unveiled a lean new Simple Touch Reader boasting a touch screen, months-long battery life and a price of US$139. The Simple Touch Reader featuring a 6-inch, black-and-white touch screen was available for order at nook.com and is to begin shipping on June 10. Within hours of the Nook announcement, Amazon released a version of its Kindle 3G e-reader discounted to US$164, with the price subsidized by on-screen ads. Kindle 3G with Special Offers was intended to build on the success of a Wi-Fi-only model that has become the hottest-selling Amazon e-reader in the five weeks since it was made available with a US$114 price tag.
CHIPMAKERS
Weak quarter expected
Applied Materials Inc forecast weak quarterly revenue, saying concerns about a tough economy have led chipmakers to delay spending to expand capacity, pushing down the company’s shares. Following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on March 11, investors have worried that robust chip equipment spending could slow despite soaring sales of Apple Inc’s iPhones, iPads and a slew of competing mobile gadgets. Chief financial officer George Davis warned analysts on a conference call that Applied Materials may not achieve its annual fiscal forecast of more than US$11 billion in revenue if its customers don’t see signs of stronger consumer demand. Executives pointed to higher fuel costs and inflation in emerging markets. Some investors believe that chip companies may be spending too quickly on manufacturing expansion and could find themselves slashing capital expenditures next year.
JAPAN
Exports drop 12.5 percent
Exports dropped last month, bearing the brunt of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed factories and caused massive production losses across the nation, the government said yesterday. Exports fell 12.5 percent year-on-year, the biggest drop in 18 months, to ¥5.16 trillion (US$62.8 billion). Imports rose 8.9 percent to ¥5.62 trillion, resulting in a trade deficit for the first time in three months, the Ministry of Finance said. “Exports fell sharply as Japanese manufacturers simply could not produce goods due to severe supply shortages following the earthquake,” said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research. The ministry said it was the first time in 31 years Japan posted a trade deficit for the month of April. Among exports, auto shipments took a beating, dropping a staggering 67 percent last month, while semiconductors fell 19 percent.
GERMANY
Consumer confidence drops
The eurozone debt crisis and higher energy prices have sapped the country’s consumer sentiment, resulting in a third consecutive drop in the GfK index, the research institute said yesterday. On the basis of a survey of 2,000 people done this month, the forecast index for next month dropped to 5.5 points from 5.7 points this month. “The worsening of the debt crisis in Greece and continuing high energy prices are dampening the optimism that German consumers have been exhibiting up to now,” a GfK statement said. A breakdown of the results showed that shopper’s propensity to make large purchases had declined and that dogged inflation had raised fears related to personal revenues.
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
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
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],”