Acer Inc (宏碁) has no plans to launch any fourth-generation (4G) smartphones using Intel Corp chips this year, despite its current partnership with the US chipmaker in 3G phones.
Instead, the personal computer maker will roll out a lineup of 4G phones using chips from Qualcomm Inc and MediaTek Inc (聯發科), its two major suppliers for 3G phones, the company said earlier this week.
The new Acer 4G phones are due to be available for the Taiwanese market from early next quarter, when the country is expected to begin operations of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network, Vincent Chen (陳建志), a product manager at Acer’s telecom business department, said on Tuesday at a product launch for the Liquid E3, a mid-tier 3G smartphone.
Chen declined to give specifics as to why Acer will not use Intel chips in the near term, after the two joined hands early last year to launch the 4.3-inch Liquid C1 Android smartphone for emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Thailand.
Intel has been a leading player in the PC industry, but is a relative latecomer to the mobile chip market, which is currently dominated by ARM-based power-efficient chips from Qualcomm and Apple Inc that work better in smartphones and tablets without quickly draining their batteries.
In February, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) unveiled three new smartphones in its budget ZenFone range based on Intel’s Atom chipsets.
However, none of them support 4G LTE.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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