Local 3D printer manufacturer XYZprinting Inc (三緯) yesterday launched its first entry-level model for students, hoping to see shipments quadruple to 120,000 units this year.
Last year, XYZprinting sold more than 30,000 3D printers, mostly for household use and designers, a company executive said.
With such growth, XYZprinting will turn a profit this year, chairman Simon Shen (沈軾榮) said on the sidelines of a news conference.
Photo: CNA
Broadening its product lineup, the company plans to roll out its first 3D food printer and a commercial model by the end of this year, Shen said.
“We are not worried at all [about growth]. We are seeing a continuous rising trend in demand,” Shen said.
MARKET OUTLOOK
Global shipments of 3D printers are expected to more than double to 217,350 units this year and expand to 2.3 million units in 2018, compared with 108,151 units last year, market researcher Gartner Inc projected.
“This year, the US will remain the biggest export destination for the company. We expect China to catch up with the US next year and to become a market as big as the US,” Shen said.
The market is expected to benefit from Beijing’s plans to equip each elementary school in China with a 3D printer.
“Beijing is encouraging young people to turn their design ideas into products,” Shen said.
LENOVO LINK
The three-year-old XYZprinting, a subsidiary of the New Kinpo Group (新金寶集團), is upbeat about the Chinese market, as the company has teamed up with Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) to sell 3D printers there via China’s number one PC brand’s e-commerce subsidiary.
The company’s new model, dubbed the Da Vinci Jr 1.0, carries a price tag of NT$9,999 per unit and is XYZprinting’s first effort to bring 3D printing technology to the education sector.
In addition to the developed economies like the US, Europe and Japan, XYZprinting is expanding its reach markets including China, Iran, Turkey and Thailand.
To cope with its fast growth, XYZprinting has increased its workforce to more than 200 people, from 40 people since the company’s inception in 2013.
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