COMPUTERS
Shipments tipped to fall
Total shipments of notebooks from Taiwanese contract producers might fall to their lowest level in seven years this quarter, because of lower orders from HP Inc and Apple Inc, as well as soft demand for Chromebook laptops, Taipei-based Digitimes Research said yesterday. Shipments from Taiwanese makers led by Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦) are forecast to reach 27.365 million units in the January-to-March quarter, down 6.8 percent year-on-year and 17.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, Digitimes said in a report. Global notebook brands are predicted to see total shipments fall by 9 percent annually and 16.5 percent quarterly to 34.21 million laptops this quarter, about 80 percent of which would come from Taiwanese makers, the report said. The market researcher attributed the weakness to inventory depletion in retail channels, lackluster sales in Chromebooks and other seasonal factors. Detachable notebooks were not covered in Digitimes Research’s latest market analysis.
ELECTRONICS
Novatek expects sales drop
Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), the nation’s biggest supplier of driver ICs for LCD panels, yesterday said it is expecting sales of between NT$11.5 billion and NT$12 billion (US$341.4 million and US$356.3 million) this quarter, compared with last quarter’s NT$12.63 billion. The company’s guidance for this quarter indicates that sales are to fall 5 to 9 percent sequentially, which it attributed to the effects of a slow season and fewer working days this month. Gross margin is also likely to reach between 27.5 percent and 28.5 percent this quarter, compared with 28.45 percent last quarter, the company said in a statement. Novatek also released its results for last quarter, showing its net income on a consolidated basis decreased both annually and quarterly to NT$1.52 billion, or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$2.49, partly due to lower foreign-exchange gains. For the whole of last year, the company posted net profit of NT$6.4 billion, or EPS of NT$10.52, with consolidated sales falling 5.91 percent year-on-year to NT$50.87 billion.
SOFTWARE
AI firm announces tie-up
Artificial intelligence (AI) developer Appier (沛星互動科技) yesterday announced a collaboration with National Taiwan University (NTU) in a bid to improve the firm’s technological capabilities. Appier said in a statement that it has hired NTU associate professor Lin Hsuan-tien (林軒田) to head its AI research and development team. Founded in 2012 in Taipei, Appier has thus far secured US$30 million in funds from major private equity firms, including Sequoia Capital (紅杉資本), and industry backers such as MediaTek Inc (聯發科). The firm said it serves more than 500 global brands and agencies in 11 Asian markets.
CHIP PACKAGERS
Powertech sees income rise
Powertech Technology Inc (力成), a memorychip tester and packager, yesterday reported that net income last year rose 24 percent annually to NT$4.02 billion, the highest in four years. During the period, sales rose 6.2 percent annually to NT$42.52 billion, while earnings per share were NT$5.2, it said. Powertech chairman Tsai Du-kung (蔡篤恭) said that the company’s decision to sell a 25 percent stake to China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光) is aimed at fending off competitors from poaching its major clients and to grow its foothold in the Chinese market.
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],”