TECHNOLOGY
Apple store coming soon
Apple Inc is planning to open its first official retail store in Taiwan at the Taipei 101 skyscraper. On its Taiwan Web site, Apple said that the retail shop directly owned by the US consumer electronics giant would be coming to Taipei soon. “Here comes Apple Taipei 101, our first store in Taiwan!” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on Twitter, adding in Chinese: “有閒來坐.” The four characters is a polite expression in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) meaning “come and visit us when you have time.” The US company currently authorizes third parties to run Apple resellers to sell its products in Taiwan, in addition to selling its products through its online platform. While construction of the new store is under way, Apple has invited Taiwanese paper-cutting artist Yang Shih-yi (楊士毅) to create a large papercut work showing a huge tree as a gathering place in the store. Apple said that the papercut would be an expression of the company welcoming people to the new store. While Apple did not disclose an exact opening date, local media said that the two-floor store, which covers about 400 ping (1,322m2), is expected to open by the end of this month.
Photo: EPA
ELECTRONICS
Everlight sues Bridgelux
Everlight Electronics Co (億光), the nation’s largest LED chip packaging and lighting products supplier, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Bridgelux Inc at the Northern District of California Court on Saturday, the company said in a statement yesterday. Everlight said Bridgelux’s products infringe on its patented technologies US6335548 and US7253448, which are used in high, mid and low-powered LED lighting products. Everlight said it asked the court to forbid Bridgelux from manufacturing, selling, importing and exporting products using said technologies. It also asked Bridgelux to pay for damages and losses, in an effort to protect the interests of Everlight’s clients and shareholders, the Taiwanese company said. In related news, Everlight on Friday reported revenue of NT$2.36 billion (US$78.2 million) for last month, up 2.44 percent from the NT$2.31 billion it made in the same period last year. Cumulative sales in the first five months of the year slid 2.95 percent annually to NT$11.33 billion, its filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
MACHINERY
Exports surge 10.6 percent
Machinery exports increased 10.6 percent year-on-year to NT$65.7 billion last month, buoyed by a stable global economic recovery, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機器工業公會) said yesterday. From January through last month, machinery exports totaled NT$300.2 billion, representing a 7.4 percent surge from the same period last year, the association said in a statement. Machinery exports to China contributed 28.4 percent to the nation’s total machinery exports in the first five months of the year, while shipments to the US and Japan accounted for 16.2 percent and 6.7 percent respectively, TAMI’s statistics showed. The nation’s machinery exports this year are forecast to grow by 5 to 10 percent from last year, backed by improving demand in major markets, TAMI chairman Alex Ko (柯拔希) said earlier this year.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure