TECHNOLOGY
Flat-panel output to grow
The output value of the flat-panel displays produced by Taiwanese firms is expected to grow 2.2 percent to NT$371.14 billion (US$12.39 billion) this quarter from last quarter because of the growing popularity of smartphones, the Industry and Technology Intelligence Services (ITIS) said in a report yesterday. The output value of smaller screens are expected to rise 11.6 percent from a quarter earlier to NT$57.74 billion due to the strong demand for smartphones, while the output value of large panels will slide 2 percent sequentially to NT$175.16 billion, the report said.
SMARTPHONE
HTC launches smartphone
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday launched a new version of its flagship HTC One smartphone specifically for the Japanese market, in cooperation with a mobile unit of Japan’s second-largest mobile operator KDDI Corp. The new smartphone is expected to go on sale early next month, the mobile carrier said on its Web site, without disclosing the prices. Japan is the ninth foreign market that the new HTC One has entered in the past three months.
COOPERATION
Cathay signs pact with bank
Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控) said yesterday it had signed a pact with China Merchants Bank (中國招商銀行) on future business cooperation. It is the company’s seventh such pact with a Chinese lender, Cathay Financial said in a statement.
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