Apple Inc’s rivals want to benefit from its magic, hoping that its long awaited new smartwatch will finally conjure demand for wearable technology that has so far generated more buzz about its potential than actual sales.
Gizmos that users wear on their bodies have yet to live up to the hype as the next big thing in technology. However, experts say the arrival of Apple’s new Watch — expected to be launched at an event scheduled for next week — could finally get consumers excited.
“If Apple is successful, it’ll create a rising tide that will lift the whole market,” said Ben Wood, a top gadget reviewer at technology market research firm CCS Insight.
His company predicts Apple will sell 20 million of its new smartwatches this year, helping spur 150 percent growth in the wearable technology sector to 75 million gadgets, rising to 350 million by 2018.
Making novelty products is one thing. Getting people to wear them is entirely another. Just ask Nike Inc or Google Inc.
Sportswear maker Nike halted work on its line of sports fitness wristband products a year ago.
By far the most high-profile failure to date has been the futuristic Google Glass, which the Internet giant quit producing in January.
Apple is to hold a mysterious event on Monday, where it is widely expected to launch its much-anticipated but pricey new watch.
While makers of conventional watches have so far mostly resisted the move to smartwatches, there are signs that brands better known for style than technology are testing the market. US brand Guess Inc launched what it described as the first fashion branded smartwatch.
Still, for now wearable smart devices mostly work by linking to a smartphone, and consumers do not seem to be lining up to buy a watch that acts mainly as an expensive remote control for a phone they have to carry in their pockets anyway.
Some experts say the technology will only really take off when the wearables can be used independently.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”