Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC brand, yesterday said that it plans to introduce two more wearable devices in the second half of next year, seeking to repeat the success of the smartwatch it launched recently in a bid to become one of the world’s top three suppliers of wearable devices.
Asustek’s ZenWatch has been rolled out ahead of Apple Inc’s Apple Watch, which is expected to hit the market early next year.
“ZenWatch is our first wearable device powered by Goolge Inc’s Android Wear system,” Asustek chief executive Jerry Shen (沈振來) said at a product launch for the local market, following the smart device’s overseas debut.
Photo: CNA
Shen said the market reactions to the ZenWatch in the US and Japan have been satisfying. He declined to disclose sales figures.
“Select European countries, China and Hong Kong will be included in the second wave of ZenWatch launches,” he added.
The company said that supplies of the smart device are running short in the US and Japan, which Shen attributed to a components shortage.
Asustek only utilizes 50 percent of its 50,000 units-a-month capacity.
The supply shortage could extend to February next year, Shen said.
Despite this, Asustek is planning to launch the second-generation ZenWatch — which has a voice call function and a smart wristband — in the third quarter of next year.
Asustek hopes that the device, which is priced at NT$5,990, gains popularity in the mass market. That figure is almost half of Apple Watch’s price tag of at least US$349.
Since smartwatches are the first Internet of Things product with foreseeable growth potential, Asustek will strive to become “a key player” in this sector, Shen said.
The company is to boost ZenWatch production in the second half of next year, either to produce the first-generation models, or the second-generation ones, Shen said.
Separately, Shen said that “the weak yen has not affected the revenue ZenWatch has generated for Asustek because the product was launched in Japan in November and the currency appears to have stopped falling since then.”
Asustek’s share price closed down 0.88 percent at NT$337 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.97 percent.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS