HTC mum on TCL partnership
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) was low-key yesterday on speculation of a possible partnership with Chinese electronics giant TCL Corp, which has suggested a partnership to compete with US giant Apple Inc and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.
On Saturday, TCL chairman Li Dongsheng (李東生) posted on his Weibo microblogging page that “ethnic Chinese businesses on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should join hands to compete with Apple and Samsung.”
HTC declined to respond to Li’s comments.
HTC’s 8.9-inch Nexus tablet computer, co-developed with Google Inc, is to go on sale in Taiwan by the end of this year, marking the company’s return to the tablet market after three years of absence, HTC North Asia president Jack Tong (董俊良) told reporters in New York.
Shin Kong branch sales up 7%
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co Ltd (新光三越百貨) yesterday said revenue of its branch on Taipei’s Nanjing W Road for the special anniversary sales season starting from Sept. 25 had thus far risen more than 7 percent from a year earlier, exceeding its forecast of 5 percent.
The retailer said it is confident the total sales of the Nanjing branch’s anniversary sales, which are to end on Sunday, will reach NT$2.35 billion (US$77.04 million), higher than its original target of NT$2.26 billion.
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi now expects 6 percent sales growth for its branch at Xinyi Place (台北信義新天地) from its anniversary sales event from Thursday next week to Oct. 29, with a revenue target of NT$5.4 billion.
Winbond revenue up 25.63%
Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) on Tuesday said revenue for last month rose 25.62 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.33 billion, also rising 1.97 percent from August.
Cumulative sales for the first nine months of the year increased 14.48 percent year-on-year to NT$28.43 billion on a consolidated basis, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In the third quarter alone, the company’s revenue grew 1.95 percent to NT$9.93 billion, compared with NT$9.74 billion in the prior quarter.
Google raising cloud investment
Google Inc is planning to increase its investment in its cloud computing data center in Changhua County, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, saying that the US search giant is expected to invest between US$100 million and US$200 million more in the third phase of the development of the data center, which is located in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰化濱海工業區).
Google has already invested more than US$600 million in the facility, the paper said. The first phase of the data center’s development was completed at the end of last year and the second phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, the report said. The third phase of development could start early next year, it said.
E-Life sells stick computer
E-Life Mall Corp (全國電子), a Taiwanese electronics retail chain, began selling a pocket-sized stick computer using an Intel Corp chipset yesterday that can turn any compatible display into a virtual PC.
With a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, the Lemel-branded stick computer can use big-screen displays, such as full-HD televisions. The device, which sells for NT$4,990 (US$164), can run Microsoft Office software and connect to a wireless mouse or keyboard via Bluetooth connectivity.
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