Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, yesterday said it plans to launch wearable devices later this year, jumping on the bandwagon of popular mobile devices.
“We actually had demonstrated our products [wearable devices] to some of the company’s clients at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month,” said Peter Shieh (謝金全), vice president of Acer’s corporate account business division under the company’s Greater China regional operation department.
“The company is still developing certain types of wearable devices. We certainly aim to play a role in the new market,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a product launch event.
Photo: CNA
He did not said if the wearable products would include smart watches. In collaboration with telecom carrier Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Acer yesterday launched its new smartphone product, called the Liquid Z5, in Taipei. The new smartphone runs on Google Inc’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean mobile operating platform and is equipped with MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) MT 6572 1.3 GHz dual-core processor, a 5-inch display and 5 megapixel camera.
Shieh said Acer also planned to launch smartphones supporting 4G this year to meet consumers’ needs for faster wireless data transmission. He added that Acer will consider collaborating with the nations’ top three telecom carriers — Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) — to help boost sales of its smartphones this year. Acer plans to sell between 140,000 and 175,000 smartphones in the home market this year, Shieh said.
That is between 100 percent and 150 percent more than 70,000 units of smartphones Acer sold in Taiwan last year, he added.
According to Acer’s internal financial report, up to 90 percent of the company’s smartphone sales were generated from telecom carriers’ purchases last year, Shieh said, forecasting that the percentage would remain the same this year.
“Given telecom carriers’ extensive sales channels, Acer has to collaborate with operators to sell its smartphone products in Taiwan and other countries as well,” Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) analyst Ange Wu (吳淵傑) said by telephone.
Wu said Acer, like its largest domestic rival, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), can make profits of between 20 and 30 percent of each smartphone’s sales price by selling smartphones to telecom carriers.
However, unlike China’s Lenovo Group (聯想), the world’s biggest PC maker, Acer has to differentiate its products from others and build strong brand loyalty to stay competitive in the smartphone market because “Lenovo has a huge home market that Acer lacks,” Wu said.
Separately, in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Acer yesterday said its former chairman and chief executive officer Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) had resigned from the company’s board of directors before his term was to end in June.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling