TPK Holding Co Ltd (宸鴻) yesterday said it had signed an agreement with Japan’s Nissha Printing Co Ltd to form a strategic partnership in an effort to accelerate its entry into the mid-range touch-panel market.
TPK’s announcement came as it is facing mounting pressure from industry changes as demand shifts to medium-range and low-cost smartphones and tablets from high-end models, and competition intensifies.
TPK counts Apple Inc as its top touch panel client.
Nissha Printing will invest US$6.25 million for a 25 percent stake in TPK’s touch-panel subsidiary, TPK Film Solutions Ltd, which is developing next-generation silver nanowire technology to make low-cost touch screens for smartphones and tablets.
TPK will hold a 65 percent stake in TPK Film after injects NT$4 million (US$135,400) in new capital into the subsidiary, while Sunnyvale, California-based Cambrios Technologies Corp will own 10 percent.
“TPK has been focusing on developing high-end glass touch panels, this partnership with Nissha Printing will help us broaden our product portfolio and tap into middle-range film touch panel area,” chief financial executive Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told a teleconference.
“The new 5-inch, or 6-inch silver nanowire touch screens will be very [cost] competitive,” Liu sad.
The new nano silverwire technology will help clients lower their costs by 10 percent to 20 percent if they switch to the new touch screens from existing ITO glass touch panels, TPK said.
Liu said the new touch panels will help it secure more orders from China without scarifying gross margin. Gross margin for silver nanowire touch panels will approach to TPK’s corporate average figure.
Last year, TPK’s gross margin stood at 17.05 percent.
TPK chief executive David Sun (孫大明) said in August that the company was facing a new challenge resulting from the proliferation of low-cost mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
The company, aiming to recoup lost market share of handset touch screens, has been concentrating on developing low-cost one-glass-solution touch panels for notebook computers, but demand for touch-enabled laptops fell short of expectation.
TPK Film will ramp up production of silver nanowire touch panels in the second quarter next year, with a monthly capacity of 2 million units of 6-inch silver nanowire touch panels.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS