Taiwanese companies yesterday expressed their faith in the digital industry as a viable business for the future, if not the immediate future, in view of growing demand for digital televisions in the West.
At a launching ceremony for digital TV Special Interest Group (DTV SIG) yesterday in Taipei, company representatives said Taiwan's strong supply-chain expertise and manufacturing prowess would help the nation's companies surpass their counterparts in Japan and South Korea.
The organization, composed of government and research agencies as well as local manufacturers, aims to promote the nation's digital industry. The government has said it wants to reach its goal of digital-TV services in 80 percent of the nation's households by 2006.
"Taiwan has earned a reputation in integrated circuit (IC) and computer industries in the world, and the experience can help Taiwanese companies move to the digital TV sector, which combines both IC and computer technology," said Alan Pan (潘泰吉), general manager of the multimedia communications division at Tatung Co (大同), one of the biggest local electronics makers.
Pan suggested Taiwanese companies interested in exploiting the digital TV sector -- including high-definition flat-panel TV displays, digital tuners and other video appliances -- target the US market.
The US Federal Communications Commission in August last year mandated that by mid-2007, all TV receiver sets larger than 13 inches sold in the US must contain digital TV tuners, which is expected to boost development of digital television in the market, Pan said.
Against this backdrop, shipments of digital TV sets to the US are expected to total 33.5 million units by 2007, more than half of the worldwide total, the US-based market research firm InStat/MDR said in a report last March. InStat/MDR predicted the global demand for digital TV sets will reach 58 million at that time.
"This is a great opportunity for our high-tech companies," Pan said. "As long as they can work together to create more added value for the product such as turning the digital TV set to a home entertainment device by integrating computer and other home appliances."
However, Pan said local manufacturers should refrain from investing heavily on brandname building and using that brand image to gain more market share.
"In competing head-to-head with global consumer electronics giants such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, brand name is no longer a panacea in this digital TV sector," Pan said. "What consumers care about in the digital era is the content, not the box."
Anne Tien (
"Consumers still have high loyalty to home appliances, so it will be easier to contract manufacturing for leading companies than creating a new brand," Tien said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS