Searching for a breakthrough
There is no disputing the huge impact Steve Jobs and Apple have had on Taiwan over the last 30 years (“The Apple effect in Taiwan,” Oct. 9, page 8).
However, Apple’s success was built not only on Jobs’ wisdom and unique vision, but also numerous unknown engineers and workers in outsourcing and high-tech corporations in Taiwan and other Asian countries.
Acer founder Stan Shih (施振榮) said that under Jobs’ leadership, Apple created new business opportunities for the information and communications technology (ICT) industries in Taiwan. Clearly the high-tech sector benefits from working with Apple. This joint program not only stimulates economic growth, but also promotes Taiwan’s international standing in the high-tech industry. In addition, Taiwan produces high-quality products that enable Apple to burnish its reputation. It is a win-win strategy.
Many contract manufacturers and component suppliers might enjoy doing business with Apple, but there is a potential conflict of interest best encapsulated by the saying: “Do not place all your eggs in the same basket.”
Those companies excessively depend on US companies for continued orders and are therefore likely to encounter margin pressures in the face of Apple’s demand for lower prices. If Apple terminated its contracts with these partners, that might not only cause some companies to shut down, but could also lead to a financial crisis. The best solution to such over-concentration is for Taiwan to create its own brands.
There is little question that Taiwan has the ability to create high-quality ICT products. The nation has a democratic political system and free-market environment, where people respect a pluralistic culture, human rights and technological innovation. The government and businesspeople should encourage and value creative people and encourage little-known companies to move up the global corporate ladder.
Moreover, the government should give them a chance to popularize their ideas and designs in ways that enhance their value. They are the foundation on which a Taiwanese brand can be built.
The greatest legacy Jobs has left Taiwan is the inspiration to move up the ICT production ladder with top-quality products. We should create our own brands. HTC is a good example.
The government should encourage more companies to emulate the success of HTC, thereby ensuring more international consumers appreciate Taiwan’s potential to move up the ICT production ladder in the foreseeable future.
Mia Lin
Taipei
Weaning from Apple’s teat
According to one of your reports, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple in its production bases worldwide (“Shares of Apple suppliers rally,” Oct 12, page 12). This report gave me mixed feelings about Taiwan’s outsourcing companies.
Being part of Apple’s supply chain is a shortcut for little-known companies to expand their profits and reputation. However, Hon Hai’s profits are relatively small compared with Apple’s sales of its own branded products. The value of the brand creates benefits mainly for Apple. Moreover, it is doubtful that a long-term business relationship with Apple is a good way to achieve sustainable development.
Most consumers, including Apple’s fans, know that Apple makes high profits by selling its products at a high price. Other companies in the supply chain gain only a small percentage of the profits for manufacturing Apple-branded products.
In order to find a way out of this unfair situation, what should Taiwanese enterprises do to avoid becoming over-dependent on US companies for continued orders? It is my belief that Taiwan’s government should encourage more companies to develop technological innovations and design their our own-branded products instead of remaining an outsourcing component manufacturer and receiving only a small share of huge profits.
Consumers all over the world are aware that there is another brand challenging Apple’s position as an international market leader — the Taiwanese brand HTC.
HTC is the world’s leading designer of smartphones; it also represents a splendid model for Taiwanese enterprise. The company has created a name for itself by cooperating with Microsoft and local telecoms corporations to enhance and extend its smartphone market.
Furthermore, even in the face of strong competition from Apple, Samsung and other competitors, HTC still won the best Device Manufacturer of the Year prize at the 16th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, this year.
HTC has also jumped to the No. 98 spot on the list of the world’s top 100 brands. I am proud that for the first time a Taiwanese company now owns one of the top 100 brands in the world.
With its democratic political system and cultural resources, Taiwan has the perfect environment to create and nurture global high-tech industries.
It is now time to ponder what the next step should be for Taiwan’s ICT high-tech companies in the wake of the Apple effect.
Annie Lin
Taipei
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under