SOUTH KOREA
Q4 GDP edged up 0.3%
South Korea’s economy grew at its slowest pace in two years in the final quarter of last year, revised central bank data showed yesterday. However, industrial output rose more than expected last month from January, separate figures showed, suggesting that the export-dominated economy was learning to cope with sluggish US and European growth. GDP in the October-December period grew 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, slowing down from the third quarter’s 0.8 percent, the revised figures show. It was the slowest quarter-on-quarter growth since 0.2 percent in October-December 2009. Year-on-year GDP in the three months to December was up 3.3 percent, slowing from a revised 3.6 percent increase in the third quarter. The revised figures were slightly below the central bank’s preliminary figures in January of 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 3.4 percent year-on-year growth for the fourth quarter.
UNITED STATES
Household income rises
US household income grew at a faster pace in the fourth quarter than previously thought, which should help underpin spending this quarter. The Commerce Department said on Thursday personal income increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$13.162 trillion, US$3.3 billion more than reported last month, likely reflecting the strengthening labor market. Growth in disposable income was US$10.6 billion more than previously estimated. While the government’s final estimate left GDP growth at an unrevised 3 percent last quarter, when measured from the income side, output increased at a 4.4 percent rate. That was the fastest rise in gross domestic income since the first quarter of 2010 and followed a 2.6 percent rise in the third quarter.
COMPUTERS
Google teams up on tablet
Google is teaming up with Asia-based hardware makers on a low-priced, 7-inch tablet computer to challenge offerings by Amazon.com and Apple, reports said on Thursday. Android software backed by the California Internet giant will power hardware built by partners including Samsung and Asustek Computer (華碩電腦) to compete with Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle devices, according to Digitimes and the Wall Street Journal. An Asustek tablet could be released as early as May with a price of US$199 to make it an option for shoppers considering the Kindle Fire, Digitimes said. Google putting its weight behind an economical tablet could put pressure on other gadget makers to lower prices.
TELECOMS
PRC tops 1bn cell numbers
China yesterday said it had broken the barrier of 1 billion mobile phone accounts at the end of last month, as more people in the world’s most-populous country ditch fixed phones. The number of cellphone subscriptions grew 20.7 million in January and last month to reach just more than 1 billion, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, up from 900.4 million in April last year. In contrast, the number of fixed-line subscriptions fell by 828,000 during that period to 284.3 million, the figures showed. Mobile-phone use has exploded in China in recent years as handset prices and user charges have dropped, while the continual arrival of new technologies on the market has spurred sales. Of the more than 1 billion accounts, a total of 144 million used 3G technology — nearly double the figure for April last year.
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