Apple Inc would like to expand its lineup of authorized assembly partners next year in a bid to diversify its Asian supply chain, according to Credit Suisse AG.
The potential new assemblers for iPhones and iPads include three Taiwan-based companies — Compal Communications Inc (華寶), Wistron Corp (緯創) and Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達) — that have all tendered bids to Apple, the bank said in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Though Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) may be hurt by the addition of new assemblers, the three candidates still face challenges before they can start work for Apple, Credit Suisse said.
“Apple is known to have high standards, qualification periods, aggressive cost-downs, high seasonality and steep order ramps for product launches, which lead to cash flow pressure through working capital change or capital structure changes,” Credit Suisse analyst Thompson Wu (武光明) said.
“We believe the earliest these new EMS [electronic manufacturing services] partners will win Apple orders is in 2014,” Wu wrote.
Getting Apple orders may not be as lucrative as in the past, though, because the electronics vendor is expected to squeeze the prices it pays its Asian suppliers because of the recent decline in its gross margin, Barclays PLC said yesterday in a separate note.
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