Taiwanese technology companies must come up with new products or service ideas, instead of continuing to manufacture hardware devices, in order to succeed in the growing “app economy,” Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said yesterday.
“Taiwan’s tech industry has a legendary history, but challenges ahead are forcing firms to rethink their product strategies,” Chien said at an event yesterday.
He said anyone can now run an enterprise with the help of the Internet, which creates more convenient communication channels and a broader market containing both local and foreign consumers.
“Given that more enterprises do business via e-commerce Web sites and that more handheld device users make purchases of products or services via mobile apps, Taiwan’s tech firms can integrate their technologies with the help of the Internet to make real innovations,” Chien said.
“Taiwan’s economy needs more technological innovation because the country is rich in talent and full of strong tech knowledge, and because the ‘app economy’ is expanding at a fast pace,” he added.
Taking Cubie, an instant messaging mobile application that has already been adopted by more than 8 million users worldwide, as an example, Chien praised the Taiwan-based startup’s entrance into the mobile instant messaging market, which has been dominated by Japan’s Line Corp and the US’ WhatsApp Inc.
Cubie has software engineers that have the ability to build another Facebook Inc-like company, but the company wants to differentiate itself from others by joining the mobile instant messaging market, which Chien said requires not only creativity, but skills and vision.
“The Internet has no borders and therefore attracts consumers from any place in the world,” Cubie chief executive officer Feng Yen-wen (馮彥文) said at the same event.
Computer programming was not a challenge anymore to tech companies, but more like a “commodity” that every software engineer can own, Feng said.
“The question for tech firms is how to find out what the market demands and to fulfill that need with services provided by existing technologies and with the help of the Internet,” he added.
At present, e-commerce transactions account for only 3 percent of Taiwan’s total annual retail sales, lower than the UK’s 8 percent, Chien said, citing data compiled by the government.
He said the government needs to adjust its regulations in order to help enterprises or startups develop and market their products on the Internet, which will in turn help the nation’s economy, he added.
“It’s a positive development that the government has made some progress in licensing the 4G telecom service and removed barriers for third-party payment services for e-commerce,” Chien said. “However, with regard to the Internet, much more improvement is needed.”
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to