ELECTRONICS
Kbro cuts price of TVs
Cable TV system operator Kbro Co (凱擘) said it is offering 50-inch slim-screen TVs made by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) at the lowest price of NT$13,990 (US$476) per unit for TV sets with the same specifications. The announcement came after Hon Hai unveiled its partnership with President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) to sell 50-inch TVs at NT$19,990 per unit earlier this month. However, consumers must sign a three-year service contract to get the 50-inch TVs. Kbro also cut prices by as much as 20 percent for 40-inch, 60-inch and 70-inch TV sets made by Hon Hai, the company said in a statement released on Thursday. The prices were reduced between NT$900 and NT$3,600 per unit, according to the statement.
FOREX
Economy boosts NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.006 against the US dollar yesterday to close at NT$29.446 amid an improved outlook for the regional economy, dealers said. Turnover totaled US$566 million during the trading session. Traders showed greater willingness to hold onto regional currencies, including the NT dollar, after China reported 7.8 percent growth in the third quarter, which was brisker than in the first two quarters of the year, they said. Buying in Taiwan’s equity market also added downward pressure on the US dollar throughout the trading session before the central bank stepped in to prop up the currency, they added.
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