COMPUTERS
Chromebook use rises
Computers powered by Google Inc’s Chrome operating system are expected to increase to 3 or 4 percent of the market this year, posing a serious threat to Microsoft Corp, Taipei-based researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Saturday. The growth will be supported by rising adoption of laptops running Chrome operating system by schools, good data security protection and up-to-date features for enterprise customers, TrendForce said in a report. Affordable prices for Chromebooks, free Cloud technology-enabled data storage and free use of limited data transmission on 4G networks will also help boost penetration of Chromebooks, TrendForce said. This is despite the Chromebook’s weakness in its deep reliance on an Internet connection, and consumers’ unfamiliarity with Google’s document processing software, the research house said.
INVESTMENT
Investor’s event set to open
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is sponsoring an investors’ conference in Taipei, set to start today, that will focus on mobile technologies such as 4G infrastructure, cloud computing, wearable devices and affordable smartphones. The five-day “Taiwan, Technology and Beyond Conference” is expected to draw participants from 175 businesses, including 140 domestically listed companies, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Merrill Lynch said. Keynote speakers will include executives from British chip designer ARM Holdings PLC, Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp, South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co, Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and US-based memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc, Merrill Lynch said.
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
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
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