Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) new laptops are embracing the same strategy that worked so well for its smartphones — target buyers who want Apple Inc’s designs, but find the products beyond their reach.
Xiaomi, the company valued at US$46 billion that took the Chinese market by storm with cheap customizable phones, yesterday unveiled the Mi Notebook Air.
The high-end gaming-ready model goes on sale on Tuesday next week for 4,999 yuan (US$749) and up, while the 13-inch MacBook Air starts at 6,988 yuan.
China’s second-most valuable startup is exploring new businesses from smart devices to TVs as its smartphones begin to get crowded out of the domestic market by Huawei Technologies Co (華為), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) and other aggressive local brands.
Its second-quarter shipments slid 20 percent, said Tim Coulling, an analyst at research firm Canalys.
“Apple built some great laptops, so did home-grown Lenovo. But the top laptops on the market are either light in weight or good in performance. We want make something that is both light and super-fast,” Xiaomi’s billionaire cofounder Lei Jun (雷軍) told a launch audience at Beijing’s National Convention Center.
At 1.28kg, the larger Mi Air is lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air’s 1.35 kg.
Lei has dismissed comparisons with Apple, but his new laptop shares more than a name with Apple’s lineup — it sports rounded corners, a metallic body and minimalist design.
The biggest difference between the two products might be the blank canvas of the back-casing, which allows users to customize the look of their laptops.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”