ELECTRONICS
HTC, Jimmy Liao team up
Jimmy S.P.A. Plus Co Ltd (墨色國際), a company founded to promote artist Jimmy Liao (幾米) as a cultural brand around the globe, and HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced plans to integrate HTC’s virtual reality technology with Liao’s latest picture books. The crossover between the arts and technology industries extends Liao’s imagination from paper to the three-dimensional realm, HTC said in a statement. The “HTC Vive x Jimmy Liao’s All of My World Is You” exhibition can be visited at the Taipei World Trade Center through Sunday, HTC said.
COMPUTERS
Acer releases ebooks
PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday released 30 ebooks authorized by the National Palace Museum. Acer founder and former chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) said the company plans to introduce a total of 100 ebooks in cooperation with the museum before the end of this year. He also said Acer does not rule out cooperation between the museum and Acer’s virtual reality (VR) technologies for digital dissertation projects. Acer chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) on Monday said the company has been investing in VR technologies R&D for a while.
AUTOMOMAKERS
Hotai forecasts flat sales
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday said it expects automotive sales to reach 420,000 cars this year, similar to last year’s sales amid uncertainties in the global economy. Company president Justin Su (蘇純興) told a news conference that the firm expects to sell 130,000 Toyota and Lexus models this year, down slightly from last year’s 132,000. Due to the clouded outlook of the global economy, Su said the company lowered its market share by 2 percentage points to 31 percent this year from the 33 percent share last year.
RETAIL
President sales increase
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, yesterday said that sales last month rose 8.39 percent annually to NT$17.38 billion (US$519.53 million). The company said that sales were boosted by cold and wet weather across Taiwan last month, which drove up demand for hot food and beverage products by about 20 percent compared with the previous year. Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator, said sales last month grew 6.57 percent year-on-year to NT$4.75 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Delta annual sales rise
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that sales last month rose 2 percent annually, but declined 7.1 percent sequentially to NT$17.15 billion. During the period, power supply products contributed 53 percent of sales, followed by power management products at 25 percent, while green energy and smart home products accounted for 20 percent of revenues. Delta shares yesterday gained 4.83 percent to close at NT$141 in Taipei trading yesterday, recovering from its tumble to NT$124 on Jan. 21, the lowest since August 2013, but still lower than the NT$150 price point at which the company had issued 160 million new shares last month aiming to raise NT$24 billion in capital. The company yesterday also announced that it would build an R&D center in India with 500 high-technology engineer positions in the next three years. The R&D center is to focus on developing advanced smart energy solutions, the firm said in a statement.
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