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NSC has big plans for handhelds

Taiwan has decided to target smart handheld devices as its flagship information appliance (IAs), the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday.

The regulation of smart handheld devices, officials said, would play a key role in one of the nation's immediate ambitions -- to become the world leader in the field of IAs, in terms of production volume, by 2005.

Product standards for the appliances are slated to be announced in early March.

Representatives of the industry, however, said that the lack of professionals in 3C industries (enterprises in computers, communications and consumer electronics) might lead to the loss of opportunities in these fields.

According to the third edition of "The 3Cs Integration Technology and Industry White Paper," released by the NSC yesterday, Taiwan's intention to focus on developing smart handheld devices fits well with the international trends regarding the development of mobile Internet and mobile information devices.

Today, commonly used smart handheld devices include PDAs and smart phones.

Taiwan's personal information appliance industry has been booming since 1999, officials said. Last year, the production of the 35 Taiwan-based PDA manufacturers amounted to 14 percent of the global market. Officials expect that this year the share will rise to 22 percent.

"By 2005, hopefully, Taiwan will become the leading country in the world in the field of IAs in terms of production volume, with technology involving a system-on-a-chip (SOC)," said Hsia Han-min, president of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) Enterprise Promotion Association, at a press conference yesterday.

The field is promising, Hsia said, because the performance trends in Taiwan's IC design industry appear to be strengthening, while other industries involving IC manufacturing, testing and packaging had been suffering over the past one and half years.

Last year, the output of the nation's semiconductor industry was NT$524.3 billion, declining 26.6 percent from that of 2000. The IC design industry, however, grew at a 3.47 percent rate last year.

Officials said that the Alba Project, carried out in Scotland, would be best model for Taiwan to follow in carrying out practical strategies to develop SOC-related technology.

In the bigger picture, officials said, developing 3C software for both industrial and family use would also be Taiwan's focus. Several companies and research institutions have been encouraged to generate software for the IA arena, encompassing such diverse services as Internet TV, Internet communication devices and e-commerce facilities.

Stan Shih (¬I®¶ºa), Chairman and CEO of the Acer Group (§»ùÖ¶°¹Î), said yesterday that the lack of professionals in the 3C industry was a great worry because labor-oriented job opportunities would be unavailable at home after manufacturing factories shift overseas, including to China.

"I think Taiwan should invest more than NT$10 billion on the education sector to train more software designers, digital content providers and other professionals with international vision and by so doing, create related industries in the private sector," Shih said.

Shih said that Taiwan should grasp the transient opportunities to make itself the first competitive digital content provider of the Chinese-language market before China conquers the existing difficulties pertaining to intellectual property and the commercialization of their products internationally.
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