MANUFACTURING
Flat panels take global lead
Taiwanese flat-panel makers shipped the vast majority of the world’s ultra-high-definition TV panels last year, a local research firm said yesterday. WitsView, a research division at Taiwan-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said in a research note that Taiwanese makers shipped 2.35 million ultra-high-definition 4K2K TV panels last year, accounting for 76 percent of the global market. WitsView senior research manager Jeffry Chen (陳建安) attributed the high market share to Taiwanese panelmakers taking “pre-emptive opportunities” and developing models of 50 inches or smaller. However, panelmakers in South Korea and China have been catching up since the second half of last year, Chen said.
TECHNOLOGY
Three Pro tablets launch
Samsung Electronics Co launched three Pro series tablets in Taiwan yesterday with sizes up to 12.2 inches to take on Apple Inc’s iPads and Google Inc’s Nexus 7 series. The Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 will hit local stores late this month at NT$24,900 (US$824), while the 4G LTE version will cost NT$29,900, Samsung said in a press release. The company also launched two smaller Galaxy Tab Pro tablets with 10.1 inch and 8.4 inch screens. These 16GB Wi-Fi versions are to cost NT$14,900 and NT$12,900 respectively. The devices are scheduled to go on sale early next month.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by