ELECTRONICS
Chinese hungry for phones
Annual smartphone demand in China could rise almost 28 percent next year, but the growth is moderating from that of the previous two years, according to Digitimes Research. In a recent research report, Digitimes said smartphone demand in China next year is expected to hit 436 million units, up 27.6 percent from this year. The increase will be slower than the year-on-year rises of 184.4 percent and 50.1 percent, seen last year and this year respectively. Next year, Chinese vendors are expected to provide their home market with 279 million units, while foreign brands could sell almost 158 million units, up 3 percent from this year, the research firm said. Digitimes said Chinese smartphone vendors’ shipments to the global market for next year are likely to grow by about 28 percent from a year earlier to 407 million units.
INVESTMENT
Flow of money to PRC slows
Taiwan’s investments in China in the first 11 months of this year fell more than 22 percent, reflecting the slowing pace of the global economic recovery, government statistics released by the Investment Commission showed on Saturday. The data also demonstrated that Chinese authorities’ intensified efforts to curb house prices and to prevent people from indulging in luxury goods have slowed down the pace of Taiwanese investors moving funds to the country. In the 11 months, Taiwan’s investments in China totaled US$7.64 billion, down 22.28 percent from a year earlier. Last month alone, the funds moved by Taiwanese investors to China plunged 47 percent year-on-year to US$629.11 million, the statistics showed. Meanwhile, Chinese investors brought a total of US$354 million into Taiwan during the first 11 months, up 102.10 percent from a year earlier.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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