‘Asus brand’ figures rise
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) yesterday said that its “Asus brand” revenues for last month were NT$36.78 billion (US$1.23 billion), an increase of 19.27 percent from a month earlier and 14.26 percent from the same time last year, thanks to increases in both notebook computer and handset shipments.
Accumulated figures of its brand revenue for the period from January to last month reached NT$232.5 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent year-on-year, the world’s No. 5 PC brand said.
Total consolidated sales for the first seven months of the year advanced 2.47 percent from last year to NT$255.7 billion, according to a company statement.
Innolux revenue edges down
Innolux Corp (群創光電), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday said its revenue edged down 0.34 percent from June, but rose by 14.63 percent from a year earlier to NT$36.43 billion.
Shipments of TV and PC panels contracted by 6.8 percent to 11.48 million units from the previous month, while shipments of medium and small panels grew 1.1 percent to 28.36 million units from June.
In the seven months ending July 31, revenue fell 12.12 percent to NT$200.62 billion, from NT$228.29 billion in the same period of last year, the company said.
Chunghwa targets on track
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said yesterday its net profit fell 2.1 percent to NT$3.37 billion, or NT$0.43 per share, last month from a year earlier after mobile service revenue contracted by 3.6 percent year-on-year.
In the first seven months, the nation’s largest telecoms company accumulated NT$24.2 billion, or NT$3.12 per share, in net profit, reaching 67.52 percent of its projected NT$35.84 billion profit for the whole of this year.
Overall revenue from January through last month totaled NT$129.27 billion, down 1.39 percent from the same period last year and reaching 56.6 percent of the company’s annual target.
Kinsus posts record revenue
Silicon substrate maker Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp (景碩科技) on Thursday said its revenue hit a record level last month to NT$2.38 billion, up 5.22 percent from the previous month and 13.94 percent from the prior year.
That saw the company’s cumulative revenue in the first seven months of the year grow 12.71 percent to NT$14.96 billion from the same period last year, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
JPMorgan Securities Ltd forecast revenue for this quarter would be 5 percent higher than last quarter, but said the company might see earnings momentum slow this quarter from NT$1.23 billion last quarter, because capacity restrictions could prevent Kinsus from benefiting fully from positive business conditions this quarter.
HannStar revenue drops
LCD panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) on Thursday said revenue for last month fell 8.9 percent month-on-month and 33.4 percent year-on-year to NT$1.86 billion, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company said its shipments of small and medium-sized panels dropped 6.8 percent to 31.11 million units last month from 33.4 million units in June, but those of monitor panels increased 8.9 percent to 58,000 units from 53,000 units a month earlier.
From January through last month, cumulative revenue totaled NT$13.62 billion, a decrease of 30.3 percent from the same period last year, the filing showed.
New colors for new HTC phone
A flashy pink version of HTC Corp’s (宏達電) latest flagship phone, the 5-inch One M8, will expand color options beyond the already available grey, silver, gold and red when it hits local shelves on Monday, the company said yesterday.
The new model is to be available at HTC stores in Taiwan on Monday and sold at stores of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the country’s second-biggest carrier, on Aug. 16.
MassiveImpact to recruit
MassiveImpact Ltd, an Israel-based mobile advertising company, said on Thursday it would be recruiting more employees in Taiwan this year as part of its efforts to capitalize on the fast-growing global mobile ad market.
The company has 25 employees at its Taipei office and is looking to hire another 15 by the end of the year, mainly technical engineers, mid-level managers and specialists in media buying, according to MassiveImpact vice president of global media operations Jenne Wong.
The company declined to disclose the salary levels for the new employees, saying only that their pay will be higher than the industry’s average.
Funded by Japanese carrier Softbank Corp and the Singapore-based Singapore Telecom, MassiveImpact established five operation sites in Taipei, New York and Israel in 2007, and reaches more than 1 billion mobile Internet users in 190 countries.
Exhibition draws record crowd
The 2014 Comic Exhibition in Taipei drew more than 101,000 visitors on its first day on Thursday, the biggest-ever opening-day crowd in the fair’s 15-year history, according to the Chinese Animation and Comic Publishers Association, the main organizer of the fair.
The association estimated that 600,000 people would visit the six-day fair this year, compared with 582,000 last year.
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
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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