HTC’s brand awareness drops
Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) has suffered a drop in brand awareness in the Chinese market over the past two years, according to market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
TrendForce said in a report that HTC’s brand awareness in China fell to 16 percent last quarter from 23 percent in the first quarter of 2012, ranking sixth.
In contrast, China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) saw its brand awareness rise to 27 percent from 3 percent over the period, ranking third, TrendForce said.
In first and second places were South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and US-based Apple Inc, with 83 percent and 80 percent brand awareness respectively, the report said.
Profits up for King Yuan
King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電), which provides chip testing and packaging services, yesterday said net profit soared more than 80 percent sequentially to NT$782.7 million (US$26.06 million) last quarter, from NT$431 million in the first quarter.
Earnings per share rose to NT$0.66 from NT$0.36 during the same period, according to a company statement.
The quarterly figure represented 37 percent annual growth from NT$570.5 million in net profit in the second quarter of last year.
Gross margin rose to the historic high of 32 percent last quarter, compared with 27 percent in the previous quarter.
Last quarter, King Yuan spent NT$2.75 billion on new facilities and equipment.
Faraday net income grows
Faraday Technology Corp (智原), a fabless chip designing service and silicon patent provider, yesterday said net income grew about 22 percent to NT$206 million last quarter, compared with NT$168 million in the first quarter after non-operating income surged.
Non-operating income expanded to NT$27 million last quarter from NT$3 million a quarter ago, according to the company’s financial statement.
Looking ahead, Faraday expects revenue to drop slightly this quarter, compared with last quarter’s NT$1.47 billion, due to a higher base.
The communications segment would be a relatively strong area, supported by stable shipment of 4G base station cases and contribution from new 40-nanometer projects, while revenue from patent licensing would be stable in the current quarter, Faraday said.
Paywave coming to phones
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said on Thursday it had received a security certification from card issuer Visa Inc for digital credit cards that use near-field communication (NFC) technology on smartphones.
The certification means Chunghwa Telecom will be able to issue virtual cards through over-the-air downloads, enabling users to simply touch their NFC-enabled phones to a compatible reader to make payments.
Chunghwa Telecom said it intends to team up with local partners including banks to jointly launch commercial services based on NFC technology.
Acer’s Chromebook sales up
Acer Inc’s (宏碁) Chromebook shipments have increased 70 percent year-on-year since the beginning of the year, growing faster than the broader market, president and chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) said on Thursday.
The company, which in 2011 launched its first Chromebook model, the AC700, is also set to launch a Chromebook in Japan next week, he said.
Citing the latest data from the NPD Group, Chen said it had topped the US Chromebook market in the first quarter of the year with a 46.7 percent share.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San