SMARTPHONES
HTC to replace screens
HTC Corp (宏達電) on Tuesday in the US announced a new after-care service for customers there that offers a one-time, free cracked-screen replacement for every new purchase of any smartphone in its HTC One flagship series. The service, called “HTC Advantage,” also promises that owners of the HTC One, HTC One Mini and HTC One Max can receive major Android updates for two years from the day they purchase the phone, along with free additional online storage of 25GB to 50GB, the company said in a statement. Also on Tuesday, HTC sent media invitations for press conferences in New York and London on March 25, where the handset maker is expected to unveil the successor to the HTC One, codenamed “M8.”
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC dividend same as 2012
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Tuesday proposed to issue the same cash dividend for last year as for 2012, even though net income hit a record high last year. The company’s board approved to issue a cash dividend of NT$3 per share for last year, lower than the NT$3.5 some foreign institutional investors had anticipated due to the chipmaker’s record earnings per share of NT$7.26 last year. The dividend yield was 2.77 percent, based on TSMC’s Tuesday close of NT$108. The dividend payout ratio was 41.32 percent, compared with 46.80 percent in 2012.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group