The long-term care industry and virtual reality (VR) applications for the entertainment industry are among the key sectors being targeted by Acer Inc (宏碁) as the PC brand continues its business transformation.
“The direction of corporate transformation has become clearer in that we are going to enter the long-term care and VR industries,” Acer chief executive Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday in a briefing after the opening ceremony of the Computex Taipei at Taipei’s Nangang Exhibition Hall.
Acer has been investing in some new areas as the company is looking for long-term business opportunities rather than one-time hardware sales. In March, it acquired a 48.98 percent stake in US tablet maker grandPad Inc for US$11.04 million, aiming to provide solutions specifically designed for senior citizens.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Chen said the company in April also inked a strategic alliance with US-based Comfort Keepers, which is a leading provider of in-home care for senior citizens and adults who need help performing daily activities.
Together with Comfort Keepers and grandPad, Acer aims to expand its reach in the long-term care industry in the US, Chen said, adding that the company would invest more money in the long-term care sector.
In an effort to tap the VR entertainment industry, Acer is to form a joint venture with Stockholm-based game developer Starbreeze Studios and cooperate with movie company IMAX Corp to provide location-based entertainment, Chen said.
However, he declined to comment on the performance of the PC business, saying only that “it is challenging for worldwide PC companies, but our business has stabilized.”
Meanwhile, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) yesterday demonstrated the company’s first domestic robot, Zenbo, to Tsai at the company’s booth at Computex Taipei.
The voice-controlled Zenbo is an affordable US$599 and is equipped with many functions that make it a “smart home manager,” Shih said.
Zenbo can sense if senior citizens need medical help and make emergency calls for them, Shih said.
During the demonstration, Tsai activated Zenbo and successfully asked it to play music for her.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS