South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) are stepping up their online smartphone sales in a departure from their usual approach of releasing new phones first through retail stores or telecom operators.
Samsung’s Taiwan unit said it has worked with Yahoo Taiwan since 2010 to sell a variety of products, including smartphones, tablets and digital cameras, and that it is expanding its retail network for mid-tier and entry-level phones to take on the challenges of Taiwan’s fast-growing 4G market.
Andy Tu (杜偉昱), general manager of Samsung Taiwan’s mobile communication team, told reporters recently that smartphones sales accounted for 11 percent of Taiwan’s overall e-commerce market in the first eight months of the year, up from 6 percent during the same period last year.
Citing data from market research firms, Tu said sales of Samsung smartphones priced between NT$5,000 and NT$10,000 have jumped 40.6 percent since 2012, as “affordable” phones remain popular on e-commerce platforms.
Meanwhile, HTC has had great success in selling its Desire 816 in China through partnerships with two major online shopping malls — Jingdong (京東) and Suning (蘇寧) — receiving more than 1 million pre-orders in the first week when the phone went on sale in March.
HTC said it was considering allocating more resources to e-commerce platforms as part of a marketing push into China.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last