■ Computers
Apple sells billionth song
"Thanks a billion." That was the message on Thursday from Apple Computer Inc to users of its iTunes music store which had notched up the sale of its billionth song since its launch less than three years ago. The site, which is closely integrated with Apple's hugely popular iPod music players, has transformed the market for downloadable music by offering single tracks for about a US dollar each through a highly user-friendly interface. According to Apple, iTunes holds some 83 percent of the market for sales of online music, which jumped 190 percent to US$1.1 billion last year.
PHOTO: AFP
■ Telecoms
Sony sues Samsung
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, the world's fifth-largest mobile phone maker last year, sued bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co, accusing it of infringing on patents related to wireless phone technology. Sony Ericsson claims that Samsung breaches 15 of its patents. The lawsuit also seeks a ruling that Sony Ericsson doesn't violate 12 patents owned by Samsung, which had the third-highest share of the global handset market last year.
■ Automobiles
China car market to boom
Vehicle ownership in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, may double to about 55 million units in five years as falling prices entice consumers to buy cars, estimates by the Ministry of Commerce show. About 40 vehicles may be owned by every 1,000 Chinese in 2010, the ministry said in a statement on a Web site affiliated with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Currently, every 1,000 people in China own 24 vehicles.
■ Electronics
Sanyo investment approved
Goldman Sachs Group Inc and other investors won Sanyo Electric Co shareholders' approval yesterday to invest a total of ?300 billion (US$2.58 billion) in the ailing electronics maker via preferred shares. Goldman Sachs and a unit of Daiwa Securities SMBC will each buy ?125 billion worth of the new shares, becoming Sanyo's top shareholders with each holding 24.5 percent of voting rights. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp will buy the remaining ?50 billion worth of shares.
■ Finance
GE Money eyes India
GE Money, a unit of General Electric Co, aims to triple its assets in India by the end of 2008 as demand for credit rises in the world's fastest growing major economy after China. The consumer-lending unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric boosted capital in the Indian operation to US$240 million from US$70 million in December to expand lending, Vishal Pandit, who heads GE Money's Indian business, said. GE Money is benefiting from demand for personal loans, credit cards and home mortgages, each of which is growing more than 50 percent every year, Pandit said.
■ China
Measures taken on yuan
China will speed up the process of making the yuan fully convertible under the capital account and improve the exchange rate mechanism, the central bank's Shanghai headquarters said. The local office of the People's Bank of China said in a statement issued late on Thursday that it will regulate capital inflows and relax restrictions on outbound investment.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary