Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信), a telecom subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said it plans to form a new robotics company in the third quarter of this year.
The joint venture with Hon Hai and other partners would be aimed at providing services connected with smart homes, smart cities, smart factories and smart offices, APT chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) said at APT’s Taipei headquarters.
Creating a robotics service company is the first step in the firm’s diversification plans, Lu said, but he did not provide financial details about the new venture.
In the initial stages, the new company would focus on developing services to operate Japanese telecom Softbank Corp’s humanoid robot, Pepper, Lu said.
The waist-high robot is manufactured by Hon Hai, and Lu said that APT has established a special task force to develop software and applications for the robots.
APT plans to spin off the team to create a new company with partners to take charge of a wide range of businesses, including after-sale services for Pepper robots, maintenance services, application development, software verification and software certification, Lu said.
The formation of the robotics service company would pave the way for the local launch of the Pepper robot in the July-to-September quarter at the earliest, APT said.
APT’s robotics team has developed some applications for department stores, electronics retailers, telecoms and banks to deploy robots at their outlets.
Initially, Pepper robots are to be used at mobile phone stores and bank outlets to greet consumers and provide services, Lu said.
In the second half of this year, APT plans to allow Pepper robots to offer more functions and more services, similar to the way the androids are used in Japan, Lu said.
Pepper robots are scheduled to become available on Taiwan’s consumer market next year, Lu said.
The first batch of 1,000 Pepper robots offered to consumers went on sale in Japan in the middle of June last year, with additional batches of 1,000 over the following months. Those initial batches sold out within minutes, despite the ¥198,000 (US$1,813 at current exchange rates) price tag.
In related news, APT statistics show it now has 1.02 million 4G subscribers. The company said it has 3,700 base stations nationwide and the figure is expected to grow to more than 4,000 by the end of this year, with coverage available to 99 percent of the public.
APT shares edged up 0.72 percent to close at NT$9.85 yesterday in Taipei trading, compared with the broader market’s 0.90 percent rise.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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