Microsoft Corp’s push into low-priced notebooks could make such Windows-based computers a niche market segment rather than a mainstream product, according to Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc.
In light of the increasing popularity of Chromebooks that run on Google Inc’s Web-centric Chrome operating system, Microsoft is working with PC brands including Hewlett-Packard Co, Toshiba Corp and Taiwan’s Acer Inc (宏碁) to launch Windows notebooks priced at under US$250, Nomura said.
The ultra-low-priced computers are to be equipped with entry-level CPUs and preloaded with Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 operating system.
Like Chromebooks and tablets, these low-priced notebooks could become a new product segment with “some decent initial volume,” Nomura analyst Patrick Chen (陳鈞寧) said.
“Judging from the entry-level product specs and below-average computing capabilities, we believe they are unlikely to become mainstream, but rather could cannibalize some of the current tablet and Chromebook market,” Chen wrote in a research note on Wednesday last week.
Chen said he expects these low-priced devices to generate lower profits and margins than mainstream notebooks, so it could be margin-dilutive to brands like Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) if these low-priced notebooks take a significant market share.
The analyst forecast that notebooks priced under US$250 would have a limited impact on gross and operating margins of Taiwan-based contract laptop makers, and he maintained his “buy” rating on Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and Wistron Corp (緯創).
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts