LAWSUITS
Apple-Samsung fight revs up
Apple escalated its legal fight with Samsung by asking the US International Trade Commission (USITC) to block imports of some of the South Korean firm’s smartphones and tablet computers. In a filing on Tuesday, Apple asked the USITC to look into its complaint that Samsung is infringing on the California-based company’s patents in “electronic digital media devices,” including its Galaxy lines of smartphones and tablets.
ELECTRONICS
LG cuts sales target by 20%
LG Electronics Inc lowered its full-year smartphone sales target by 20 percent after losing customers to competitors led by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co. The company expects to sell 24 million smartphones this year, Park Jong-seok, head of the mobile business, said at a media briefing yesterday in Seoul. The company had previously forecast 30 million. The handset maker in February unveiled an 8.9-inch tablet computer called the LG Optimus Pad and the LG Optimus 3D smartphone capable of recording 3D images. LG expects the 3D handset to sell 1.7 million units by the end of the year, Park said.
CREDIT CARDS
Earnings will slow: Visa
Visa Inc on Wednesday warned that its revenue and earnings growth will slow next year after new US regulations on the fees banks can charge for debit card transactions kick in. The San Francisco payments network operator repeated an earlier forecast for its current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, for revenue growth between 11 percent and 15 percent and earnings-per-share growth of greater than 20 percent. Next year, however, Visa said it expects its revenue growth to slow to the mid-to-high teens.
MINING
Accident halts BHP site
Global mining giant BHP Billiton halted port and rail operations at a massive Australian iron ore deposit yesteday after a worker was reportedly crushed by a crane, police said. The 27-year-old was killed at Finucane Island, part of BHP’s Port Hedland export docks, shortly after midnight, a police spokeswoman said. BHP’s Pilbara deposit, in the Kimberley region, underpins its global iron ore operations with seven mines, more than 1,000km of rail and two separate port facilities.
INVESTMENT
Temasek reports gains
Singaporean state investment company Temasek Holdings says its investments inched higher to a fresh record in its last financial year. Temasek said in an annual report yesterday that the value of its investments jumped 3.8 percent to S$193 billion (US$157 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31. The portfolio rose 42 percent in the previous fiscal year. The fund’s net profit for the last fiscal year rose to S$13 billion from S$5 billion.
JAPAN
Machinery orders increase
Private-sector machinery orders, a leading indicator of corporate capital spending, rose 3 percent in May from the previous month, official data showed yesterday. The core data, which exclude volatile demand from power companies and for ships, reversed a 3.3 percent drop registered for April, Cabinet Office figures showed. The numbers appear to show that companies are now more willing to invest in plant and equipment, while orders related to post-quake reconstruction are also expected to show continued strength.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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