Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) confirmed yesterday that its vice president of products and operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) has been named the unit’s new boss.
Phil Blair, who has been with HTC since 2005, will “be able to provide a seamless transition in EMEA,” the company said in a statement.
He will replace former EMEA head Florian Seiche, who decided to join Finnish handset maker Nokia Oyj, according to Bloomberg.
The Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company said that Seiche left HTC to “pursue other interests,” and that it appreciated his contributions and efforts over the past several years.
Separately, scores of customers lined up outside shops in Taipei yesterday for the global debut of HTC’s new flagship smartphone, the HTC One.
A high-tech fan, surnamed Lin, became the first smartphone user in the world to get his hands on the new model after waiting in line for hours.
“It was worth waiting for,” Lin said, while showing off his new phone.
Taiwan’s biggest telecoms operator, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), opened special counters for the HTC One at some of its outlets yesterday, hoping to capitalize on interest in the new model.
The smartphone maker made a first batch of 6,000 HTC One phones available to local retailers for the product’s first day on the market.
Sales of the HTC One were also set to begin in the UK and Germany later yesterday. The phone is expected to hit stores in the US before the end of next month.
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