Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械), the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, yesterday said it plans to work with HTC Corp (宏達電) to make high-end electronic-assisted bicycles that will turn a HTC smartphone into a multimedia trip computer.
The new e-bike will allow a rider to use navigation functions such as a global positioning system (GPS) or to monitor his or her heart rate through HTC’s handheld devices. It is a joint effort between Giant and the world’s No. 5 smartphone maker, Giant spokesman Jeffrey Sheu (許立忠) said.
“HTC is a successful smartphone maker and has an outstanding technological capability in the field. We expect to combine a high-tech brand like this with the traditional manufacturing sector to make smart bicycles of the future,” Sheu said by telephone.
Sheu said Giant and HTC began discussing collaborating early this month, but he declined to reveal further details because of a confidentiality agreement between the two firms.
On June 30, Giant and HTC announced they would cosponsor the live broadcast of the 2011 Tour de France.
Last year at the Paris Motor Show, German carmaker Daimler had featured a similar smart e-bike, which used Apple’s iPhone as a control and communication center, as well as a monitoring instrument for battery charge, average speed, navigation and more.
Taiwan’s shipments of assembled bicycles rose 17.87 percent to 5.07 million units last year from the previous year, with total revenue growing 20.24 percent to NT$44.25 billion (US$1.5 billion), Bureau of Foreign Trade figures show.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
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