Taiwanese showed less enthusiasm for launches of the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 compared with launches of new Apple devices in the past, as shown by lines failing to form outside telecom outlets and retailers’ stocks appearing to cover the demand.
Taiwan’s three biggest carriers yesterday began selling the Wi-Fi plus cellular models of the new iPads, which start at NT$11,990 (US$405) for a 16GB iPad Air and NT$9,590 for a 16GB iPad Mini 2 if consumers sign a three-year contract.
Consumer interest in the cellular models, however, was “less enthusiastic” than for the original iPad Mini, which hit Taiwanese stores in January, according to Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the country’s largest mobile provider.
Supply of the new iPad series was expected to meet consumer demand at the end of the first day of sales, despite limited initial shipments, Chunghwa Telecom said, adding that it had more inventory of the iPad Air than the iPad Mini 2.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳), Taiwan’s third-largest carrier, said it did not find people lined up outside its flagship store at Taipei Railway Station when it opened at 7am, and only a few units of the two models had been sold before noon.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台哥大), the country’s second-biggest telecom operator, did not reveal initial sales figures for the new iPads, but said that the devices are available in its more than 800 stores.
Local distributors said combined first-wave shipments to the three major operators would be limited to fewer than 1,000 units of the iPad Mini 2 and fewer than 5,000 iPad Airs.
The iPad Air is 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth-generation iPad, while the iPad Mini 2 features a razor-sharp retina display. Both devices run the iOS 7 platform.
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