HTC Corp’s (宏達電) change of chief executive officer should be a smooth transition and is expected to help the Taiwanese smartphone maker transform into a lifestyle brand, according to a foreign brokerage based in Japan.
HTC’s board of directors named chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) as its new CEO on Friday, after it decided to move then-CEO Peter Chou (周永明) to a new role heading its Future Development Lab.
“In our view, this is important and proper step at this stage, as HTC is in the process of transitioning from a smartphone brand to a ‘lifestyle’ brand,” the Japanese brokerage wrote in a research note dated Friday.
INNOVATION
“Chou’s dedication to new product development is important to HTC’s future,” said the brokerage firm, whose name cannot be reported under rules set by Taiwan’s financial regulator, since the brokerage was offering specific forecasts that could influence the market.
In terms of its smartphone strategy, HTC would continue to push steady growth of its high-end models and seek to achieve higher overall volume by using various mid-to-lower end models to meet diverse market demand, the brokerage said.
The new management arrangement at HTC is likely to be “a smooth transition” and would better suit HTC’s long-term development plan, given Chou’s dedication to new technologies and product development, the brokerage said.
RED FLAG
It said that although it is pleased to see HTC’s strong commitment to non-smartphone products such as wearables, Internet of Things and virtual reality devices, the recent mixed consumer feedback on HTC’s new One M9 flagship phone might be cause for concern.
The company’s profitability might suffer in the short-term, given that high-end models remain its main profit drivers, the Japanese brokerage said.
The brokerage maintained its “neutral” rating on HTC shares and its price target of NT$172.
HTC shares rallied 1.77 percent to NT$144 in Taipei yesterday, outpacing the TAIEX, which gained 0.09 percent.
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
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
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