About 930,000 people, or 4 percent of Taiwan’s population, owned wearable devices last year — mainly to collect and track useful health information — an Institute for Information Industry (資策會) survey showed.
Citing the survey’s results, the government-sponsored Institute for Information Industry’s research arm Foreseeing Innovative New Digiservices (FIND) said that compared with 2014, last year there were double the number of wearable owners and the penetration rate was 2.3 percentage points higher.
FIND said that new entrants to the workforce between 25 and 29 were the main users of wearable devices last year.
Among all wearable devices, smart wristbands were the most popular, owned by 68.3 percent of wearable device owners, followed by smart watches at 40.4 percent.
The ownership rates for other wearable devices such as smart eyeglasses and smart shoes were all below 5 percent, according to the survey.
A device’s function is the primary motivating factor behind the decision to buy such products, with up to 58.5 percent of users saying they use wearables every day and 64.8 percent of users saying their smart devices help them exercise more efficiently.
Just more than half — 54.2 percent — use them to collect and track medical information, 47.9 percent use them to remind them of daily routines and 41.1 percent use them to connect to other equipment and devices, such as smartphones, the survey found.
There was a major boom in wearable devices in the electronics industry last year, FIND said, with the launches of the Apple Watch and the rollout of new smart devices from international brands Garmin Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Sony Corp, and domestic brands Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Acer Inc (宏碁) and HTC Corp (宏達電) as well as hot sales of Xiaomi inc’s (小米 ) smart wristband.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS