Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s two largest contract notebook makers, yesterday both reported a monthly increase in consolidated revenue last month, while their smaller rival Wistron Corp (緯創) saw its sales decline.
Quanta’s consolidated revenue last month was NT$72.68 billion (US$2.42 billion), up 6.84 percent month-on-month, mainly because of a increase of laptop shipments to 4.5 million units, from 4 million units the previous month, the company said in a statement.
Last month’s sales, however, remained 15.88 percent lower than the NT$86.39 billion recorded a year earlier. Revenue for the first five months was down 14.88 percent to NT$365.33 billion on an annual basis, it said.
Compal said in a separate statement yesterday its consolidated revenue last month was NT$51.58 billion, up 2.16 percent month-on-month, but down 10.94 percent from the same month last year.
The company shipped 2.9 million notebooks last month, an increase of 3.57 percent from 2.8 million units in April, it said.
In the first five months, accumulated revenue totaled NT$263.14 billion, down 8.69 percent year-on-year, Compal said.
Wistron posted declining sales last month because of lower notebook shipments — 2.3 million units last month from 2.5 million the previous month — caused by tight supply of processors.
Last month’s revenue was NT$48.33 billion, down 7.31 percent month-on-month and 7.32 percent year-on-year.
Wistron said its total sales between January and last month rose 16.47 percent year-on-year to NT$277.44 billion.
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