Sony Mobile Communications, a mobile unit of Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp, said yesterday that it will launch a new smartphone supporting the long-term evolution (LTE) network for Taiwan’s market next month.
Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which ran from Tuesday to Friday last week, the Xperia Z1 Compact is the start of Sony Mobile’s plan to introduce a full range of 4G LTE phones in Taiwan this year, Sony Mobile’s Taiwan branch general manager Jonathan Lin (林志遠) said.
GLOBAL EXPANSION
The company has launched more than 10 LTE phones around the world since 2012, and feels it is now time to bring the product line to Taiwan to capitalize on the country’s 4G operations in the second half of the year, Lin said.
“2014 is the first year for Taiwan’s 4G operations, and Sony Mobile will certainly not be absent from this market,” he said at a media gathering.
‘WELL-BUILT’ PRODUCTS
The Japanese handset maker will also launch LTE phones supporting the 700MHz frequency band for the Taiwan market, including some “well-built” products, Lin said.
In late October last year, Taiwan’s telecom regulator, the National Communications Commission, granted 4G spectrum licenses to six companies: Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), subsidiaries of Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) and Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
NETWORK SHIFT
The six companies bid a total of NT$118.65 billion (US$3.95 billion), 3.3 times the floor price set by the government, for 270MHz of radio frequencies in the 700MHz, 900MHz and 1,800MHz spectrums for 4G services.
About 600,000 Taiwanese mobile subscribers are expected to shift from the current 3G network to 4G services this year when providers begin offering 4G services, market research company IDC said.
However, the number of 4G subscribers is projected to soar 13.5 times to 8.1 million people by next year, thanks to the improving quality of 4G services, IDC said in a report.
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