Recruitment of staff has begun as Apple Inc plans to open its first Apple Store in Taiwan, the US technology giant said yesterday.
Apple released a list of job ads on its Taiwan site, seeking candidates for retail positions, such as “store leader,” “expert,” “manager” and “genius,” a position unique to Apple Store responsible for helping customers with questions on Apple products.
In a statement released by Apple, the company confirmed the recruiting drive was for staff at its first Apple Store in Taiwan, which is to be located in Taipei.
The company did not disclose the exact date when the store would be opened or where it would be located, and the job ads only gave descriptions of the work, but no information about pay, benefits or work location.
Apple Store currently operates outlets in 19 countries or regions, including Japan, China, Hong Kong and Macau in Asia, while other markets are served by its online store or brick-and-mortar outlets of licensed retailers, such as Studio A Electronic Corp (晶實科技) and Data Express Infotech Co (德誼數位科技) in Taiwan.
“You cannot stop a typhoon if it is coming your way,” Data Express president Andy Tu (杜偉昱) said in response to the planned Apple Store.
Tu said there have long been rumors about Apple Store’s plan to enter Taiwan, but he said his chain, which has 50 outlets in Taiwan, would continue to provide a different kind of appeal.
Apple opened its first retail store in the US in 2001, offering sales of its products and accessories, as well as post-sale services.
The company confirmed its plan to open the first Apple Store in Southeast Asia, in Singapore, late last year, and construction of the store began earlier this year, according to local media reports, but no opening date has been announced.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained