Acer Inc (宏碁) is committed to developing a full line of Windows 8 devices, company chairman J.T. Wang (王振堂) said yesterday, as the world’s No. 4 PC vendor is banking on the new operating system to help reverse its lackluster performance.
Wang made the remarks at a press conference to introduce the company’s six new Windows 8-based and touch-enabled PC devices — two tablets (10.1 inches and 11.6 inches), two Ultrabooks (11.6 inches and 13.1 inches) and two all-in-one PCs (23 inches and 27 inches).
Wang said the new Microsoft operating system is the best of its kind and truly unique.
Photo: Bloomberg
“I’ve never been so supportive of Microsoft,” Wang said. “The new operating system enhances users’ experience and productivity by allowing them to switch from entertainment applications to work applications in an instant.”
“Acer will first focus on developing Windows 8 PC products, with plans to [commercially] launch its first Windows 8-based device in August and gradually launch all the announced products by the end of this year,” he said.
Wang said he does not think smartphones and tablets will be able to fully replace notebooks and desktop PCs, which still command a global market of 300 million to 400 million units a year.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
Windows 8 will help boost global Ultrabook shipments, Wang said.
“However, Acer is conservative about its second-quarter sales performance as consumers are still waiting for the official launch of Windows 8,” Wang said.
He forecast that Acer’s sales would begin to improve in the third quarter and show a significant pick-up in the fourth quarter as more Windows 8 devices hit the market.
The company’s global PC market share fell in the first quarter from a year earlier as shipments dropped 9.2 percent, the largest decline among the top five vendors, researcher Gartner Inc said in April.
Acer’s first-quarter consolidated revenue fell 11.4 percent from a year ago to NT$113 billion (US$3.8 billion). Its net profit plunged 72.1 percent to NT$331 million and earnings per share (EPS) dropped to NT$0.12 from NT$0.45 during the same period.
ASUSTEK
Rival Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) also announced six Windows 8-based devices at a separate press conference — one all-in-one PC, two tablets, a convertible notebook called Transformer Book and an ultralight notebook series called Taichi.
Available in both 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch screen sizes, the Taichi is as light and thin as its Zenbook series with a double-sided LED backlight display, which means touch screens on both the inside and outside of the lid.
The Transformer Book is billed as “the world’s first convertible notebook” — allowing users to instantly switch between a notebook and a tablet by simply detaching the screen — while the two tablets, when put in the mobile docks, instantly transform into compact clamshell ultraportable notebooks, complete with full QWERTY keyboards.
A company senior director said some of the Windows 8 devices announced yesterday would be introduced in the market at the same time that Microsoft launches its Windows 8 operating system — possibly in the fourth quarter, he added.
Asustek, the world’s No. 5 PC vendor and No. 1 motherboard maker, reported better-than-expected profits and margins for the first quarter of the year. The company has said it expects to eventually surpass its rivals in the Android and Windows 8 tablet business.
Net income rose 2.56 percent quarter-on-quarter, or 46 percent year-on-year, to NT$5.01 billion (US$171.2 million) in the first quarter, according to the company’s financial report.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained