Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) said yesterday that it expects its tablet computer sales to increase from 1.8 million units last year to 6 million this year because of its early adoption of Google Inc’s latest Android operating system.
Android version 4.0, dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” will be released on Thursday for users of Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet, making Asustek the world’s first tablet PC maker to adopt this open platform, Asustek vice president and general manager of its Eee system business unit Samson Hu (胡書賓) said.
“Our relationship with Google has improved and this year we have already planned products on open platforms, including Android and Windows,” Hu told a media briefing.
The Taipei-based manufacturer will unveil a 7-inch Android-powered tablet and a 10-inch model enabling higher screen resolution at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the Las Vegas Convention Center in the US next week, with another two 10-inch Android products to be launched in the first half of this year, he said.
Asustek also plans to introduce a tablet featuring Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 system and a chipset from ARM Holdings PLC in the second half of this year, but shipments will be limited this year because of the product’s late launch, Hu said.
Meanwhile, the company expects to begin shipping the 3G version of the Transformer Prime in March, which will offer better global positioning system (GPS) connectivity than the Wi-Fi version.
To deal with the increasing numbers of tablet products, Asustek plans to expand its staff of researchers working on Android software this year from 300 people to 400, with another 150 engineers focusing on the Windows platform, according to the company.
Other electronics makers will also present new tablet computers at the CES next week, but far less than last year, when more than 80 contenders were fielded.
Forrester analyst Sarah Rothman Epps expects Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, Toshiba Corp, Acer Inc (宏碁) and others to introduce tablets powered by Android software.
“Will they sell better than last year? I don’t expect to see any barn-burners, but there’s reason to be optimistic,” she said.
The percentage of US tablet shoppers who said they prefered Android systems doubled to 18 percent in the first 10 months of last year, according to Forrester.
While tablet computers aspiring to unseat Apple’s market-ruling iPads were the rage at last year’s CES, slim yet powerful laptop computers referred to as “ultrabooks” are expected to crowd the spotlight next week.
CES organizers on Thursday predicted that 30 to 40 new ultrabooks would debut at the show.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six