COMPUTERS
Asustek forecast hits shares
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) shares fell 5.38 percent to close at NT$272.5 yesterday after the company said on Wednesday that its notebook computer shipments for this year are likely to fall about 10 percent from last year. Asustek said that due to weakening demand in the global PC market, its notebook computer shipments for this year are unlikely to hit 20 million units, down about 10 percent from the 22 million recorded last year. Asustek said competition from major rivals, such Acer Inc (宏碁), Samsung Electronics Co and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), is expected to get fiercer than ever as they launch new devices to attempt to grasp a larger share of the market. The company said that amid the unfavorable market climate, it is unlikely the company will post an operating margin of more than 5 percent in the second and third quarters of the year.
SMARTPHONES
Red HTC One only for UK
The long-rumored red version of HTC Corp’s HTC One flagship smartphone is now official, but it will only be available in the UK, the Taiwanese smartphone maker said yesterday. The red version will be sold via Phone 4u, a major mobile phone retailer in the UK, with availability details to be announced in coming weeks, HTC said in a letter to customers. The Android-powered phone was launched on Feb. 19 in London and New York.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”