Apple Inc’s much-anticipated new iPhone 5 smartphone, and iPad 4 and iPad Mini tablets, hit Taiwan yesterday, with hundreds of people jamming its stores in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Xinyi (信義) districts, other retail outlets and at the nation’s top three telecoms carriers.
Retailer Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (燦坤實業) was a step ahead of the competition, though, with its Neihu flagship store commencing sales of the iPad 4 and the iPad Mini at midnight yesterday, while more than 300 people lined up outside.
“I never thought that I would be the first, but I’m very happy that this white 64-gigabyte iPad Mini is now in my hands,” Arthur Chen (陳樹森), 50, said after waiting outside the store since 9:30pm on Thursday.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
Chen said he was planning to give the 7.9-inch tablet to his 78-year-old mother as a Christmas gift to read news or watch movies.
Chang Yueh-lung (張岳龍), vice president of Tsann Kuen’s merchandise department, said the store had enough stock to meet customer demand.
He forecast that the sales momentum would last through the Lunar New Year holidays in February as companies might pick Apple’s new products as gifts for employees at year-end banquets.
Following Tsann Kuen, Studio A Electronic Corp’s (晶實科技) and Data Express Infotech Co’s (德誼數位科技) flagship stores next to Vieshow Cinemas (威秀影城) in Xinyi District, as well as the top three telecoms carriers — Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) — all advanced store opening hours to 8am yesterday.
At about 1am yesterday, more than 100 people had lined up outside Chunghwa’s store hoping they could win a free iPhone 5.
Luke Lu (盧棋), the first in line, said he had been waiting outside the store since 5am on Thursday.
“It’s worth sitting here [waiting] for so long so I can replace my phone with the newest iPhone,” Lu said, after purchasing the phone at 8am.
His long wait was also rewarded with Chunghwa giving him another iPhone 5 for free.
Lin Kuo-feng (林國豐), president of Chunghwa’s mobile business group, said the company had sold more than 1 million iPhones since 2008 and expected the number to grow to 1.5 million with the addition of the iPhone 5.
The carrier has received nearly 300,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 5 — higher than the 210,000 it received for the iPhone 4S last year and the 100,000 units for the iPhone 4 in 2010, Lin said.
To boost sales and meet customers’ expectations, Chunghwa has opened 55 new stores this year and increased its total number of outlets selling the iPhone 5 to 350 nationwide, Lin said.
By the end of the year, the carrier expects sales of the iPhone 5 to hit 100,000 units, he added.
Far EasTone, meanwhile, offered discounts of up to NT$10,000 for buyers replacing their old iPhone with the new iPhone 5.
Far EasTone president Yvonne Li (李彬) said the company had received more than 150,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 5, double that for the iPhone 4S.
Li said the company expects to deliver about 80,000 to 100,000 iPhone 5s by the end of the year and forecasts that demand for Apple tablets would continue to grow next year.
Both Studio A and Data Express said overall demand for the iPad Mini was stronger than that for the iPad 4, mainly because of the novelty factor.
Data Express said its iPad Mini inventory was exhausted by 12pm yesterday and that it would ask Apple to ship more iPad Minis to Taiwan as soon as possible.
“There is a shortage of iPad Minis across the globe because of stronger-than-expected demand, and we are talking to Apple about getting more supplies,” Data Express general manager Grace Chu (朱慧蓮) said at a news conference, adding that she expects the new supplies to arrive after Christmas.
Currently, Apple stores only offer Wi-Fi versions of the iPad Mini and iPad 4.
In Taiwan, the iPad Mini is priced at NT$10,500 for the 16GB version, NT$13,500 for 32GB and NT$16,500 for 64GB, while the iPad 4 is priced at NT$15,900 for 16GB, NT$18,800 for 32GB and NT$21,900 for 64GB.
As for the iPhone 5, Apple posted on its Web site earlier this month that the 16GB version would retail for NT$21,900, 32GB for NT$25,500 and 64GB for NT$28,900.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
RSS