Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor by shipments, is gearing up to gain ground in China’s mobile market, where it recently launched two new mid-range smartphones powered by Google Inc’s Android 4.0 operating system and equipped with a 4.3-inch high-definition display.
Dave Chan (陳國維), general manager of Acer’s touch-business group in China, said he is confident that “Acer will rank among the top 10 smartphone vendors within three years” through its deepened partnership with Chinese carriers, a statement said yesterday.
Henry Wang (汪島雄), Acer’s senior manager of public relations, said Acer chairman J.T. Wang (王振堂) met with several Chinese telecoms operators last week to talk about future cooperation plans.
The Acer AK330 will run on the 3G WCDMA network from China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) and start at a price of 1,599 yuan (US$250). The AT390 will support China’s home-grown TD-SCDMA network offered by China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), with a price tag of 1,499 yuan.
Samsung Electronics Co was ranked as the top smartphone vendor in China in the first quarter of the year, with a 23 percent market share, followed by Huawei Technologies Co (華為), with 12 percent, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.
ZTE Corp (中興) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) were tied in third place, each with a 10 percent share, followed by Coolpad (酷派, 9 percent), Apple Inc (8 percent) and Nokia Oyj (6 percent).
In eighth, ninth and 10th places were Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (4 percent), Xiaomi Technology (小米科技, 3 percent) and HTC Corp (宏達電, 3 percent) respectively.
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
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
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