Sales of personal digital assistants (PDAs) by the nation's top ma-nufacturers have been on the rise since the Computex Taipei computer trade show was held early last month, four companies said yesterday. Tough competition may however prompt factories to move to China to lower costs.
"We did see a lot of interest [at Computex]. There was one order from Central America for our non-bluetooth enabled PDA," said Alex Sharp, a marketing specialist at First International Computer Inc (
According to Justine Liu (劉宜君), spokeswoman at Mitac International Corp (神達電腦), their latest PDA offering, the Mio, is expected to land, "a couple of major orders." Customer interest has been so hot that the firm is hiring new R&D engineers with wireless-communications and PDA-design experience.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) also reported increased attention for their PDA devices. All four of the Taiwanese firms offer products that only run on Microsoft's Windows operating system for handhelds, the largest competitor to the world number one Palm operating system.
These companies also said pressure has been building on them to transfer PDA production to China in order to pare costs.
"There is a price war starting and margins are already being cut. Everybody is moving manufacturing to China for low-cost production," said an Asustek manager who requested anonymity.
Mitac still produces its PDAs in Taiwan, but Liu said that could soon change.
"We are thinking of moving [PDA] production to the Kunshan Industrial Park (昆山工業區) in Shanghai and we are building a factory and assembly line in Kunshan that should be completed within six months -- but we do not know yet when we will move," she said.
The company already operates a PDA software-development center in Shanghai where it employs 200 software engineers, to the detriment of the Taiwan government's plan to build knowledge-based industries in Taiwan. The government has made software, semiconductors, biotechnology and TFT-LCD panels the four key industries of Taiwan's economic future.
At First International, executives said PDA production might migrate to China in the long run, but their PDA production will remain in Taiwan until Chinese factories are modernized.
"Manufacturing [PDAs] is very difficult and factories in China do not have the know-how to make this product. At First International we have manufactured other products, like motherboards and notebook [PCs] in China, but we make our PDA and all [Internet appliance] products in Taiwan," said Angela Wu (吳佩蓉), assistant supervisor of the networking and information marketing department.
Wu said the supply of parts is not a factor in determining whether or not to move operations to China as there are ample parts suppliers in both countries and components can be shipped between the two economies.
Market research firm Dataquest has said PDA sales will rise 18 percent from last year to 15.5 million units. Spending on the devices will rise by more than 20 percent to US$4.6 billion this year as color displays, telephony and other features that command higher prices catch on.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS