Everest Textile Co (宏遠興業) yesterday launched its new range of smartwear, collaborating with Far Eastone Communications Co Ltd (FET, 遠傳電信) and PixArts Imaging Inc (原相科技), as it seeks to ramp up its market share in the segment.
Everest is the only Taiwanese textile company that has developed its own communication chipset and runs its own clothing brand — EverSmile (幸福台灣).
To build a thin and light monitoring device for smart clothing, Everest set up a research and development team one and a half years ago, led by a Taiwanese IC design expert who worked with six researchers, company president Roger Yeh (葉清來) told reporters on the sidelines of the products’ launch.
The new functional compression clothing is equipped with smart detachable devices that use PixArts’ optical sensors to monitor the wearer’s heartbeat and workout data, the Tainan-based company said.
The 9.5g device can also record, store and transmit data to an app developed by Far Eastone for users to check their data, Everest said.
Everest sees the collaboration with PixArts and Far Eastone as a smart clothing solution and is applying for a joint design patent, he said.
The smart compression clothing is available at EverSmile stores across Taiwan at a price of between NT$2,480 and NT$2,580 (US$75.79 and US$78.85), he said.
Introducing the product via EverSmile stores allows the company to adjust and upgrade the design of the product after receiving feedback from local consumers, he said.
“The product is just the beginning of Everest’s efforts in the smart clothing field. I have not set up a sales or profitability target as there is ample room for improvement,” he said.
Commenting on Everest’s textile provision business, Yeh said the company plans to spend NT$400 million introducing industrial automation facilities to its plants in Taiwan this year, and Thailand and Shanghai next year to raise production efficiency and cut costs.
Yeh said he supports the government’s “new southbound policy” aimed at diversifying investment away from China, but he said he doubts Vietnam is an ideal destination for textile companies looking to invest.
Many of Everest’s local peers, such as Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) and Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業), have expressed interest in increasing investment in Vietnam, but Yeh said that rising labor costs and anti-Chinese sentiment in Vietnam pose risks.
Yeh said that Everest plans to set up two new fabric and garment factories in Africa and the US, with the company’s board meeting to discuss the plans next month.
He declined to specify the locations of the planned facilities in Africa or the US.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS