The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday unveiled the world's first dual-network application services, hoping the innovative application would help Taiwan become a leader in mobile technology. The network also seeks to help communications equipment manufacturers become the nation's third trillion-dollar industry.
"Taiwan is changing its strategy from a follower in the past to a pioneer through integrating new technology and offering new solutions to stimulate new demands," Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said at a press conference yesterday.
Dual-network integration refers to technology that combines cellular networks with wireless local area networks (WLANs), which means that WLAN and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or the third-generation telecom technology can be integrated into one dual-network mobile phone, allowing users to enjoy online services through both mode which complement each other.
The application can provide users with seamless communications through the combined advantages of both a cellular system's rapid switching, wide coverage and WLAN's fast transmission and lower cost.
Cooperating with over 10 information technology and communication service providers, including Acer Inc, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), and Microsoft Taiwan, the ministry built a model in Taipei City's Nankang Science Park (南港科學園區) to demonstrate the new technology.
The service, for instance, provides workers in the park with various functions, including access to personal e-mails and instant messages or connection to any printer in the park through wireless transmission. Other services allow parents to view their children in the park's daycare center through a surveillance system. The launch of dual-network technology signals the inauguration of the M-Taiwan (mobile-Taiwan) scheme, Ho said, adding that the government plans to spend NT$7 billion to build seamless communication space across the nation in the next three to five years.
The program is expected to boost wireless Internet users to 8 million people and help the nation enter the world's top five in competitiveness of mobile commercial applications, she said.
It would also help propel the nation's communication equipment manufacturing sector to the trillion NT dollar mark by 2008, Ho said.
Taiwan's semiconductor and flat-panel display industries are already worth trillions of NT dollars a year. The nation's communication equipment makers generated production value of NT$463.9 billion last year, up from NT$311.4 billion in 2003, and are estimated to create NT$550 billion-worth of output this year, according to figures provided by the ministry's Industrial Development Bureau.
Betting on the potential of the dual-network technology, Taiwan Cellular is slated to roll out dual-network service packages with a variety of BenQ or Dopod-labeled mobile phones costing around NT$10,000 after the Lunar New Year holiday, said Lancelot Wang (
INCOMING FIX: While a date for updates has not been given, Apple said that the latest overheating incidents might be the result of apps and account data transfers Apple Inc on Saturday said that recent claims of new iPhones getting too hot to the touch are due to software and app-related bugs, and that fixes are coming soon. The company said the device can get warm in the first few days as it works overtime to get set up and restore a user’s data, due to a bug in the latest iOS 17 software, and because of some third-party apps overloading the system. Apple told Bloomberg it is working with developers behind the apps causing the iPhone to overheat and that fixes are in the process of being released.
MODERATING: A Caixin Insight analyst said China’s macroeconomy is recovering, albeit at a slow pace, but private businesses and exporters are still under pressure A private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity slowed its pace of expansion last month, suggesting there is still room for caution as the nation charts its economic trajectory for the rest of the year. The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 50.6 last month, Caixin and S&P Global said in a statement yesterday — dipping closer to the 50 line, below which indicates contraction from the month before. Caixin’s services index was 50.2 for the month, still in expansion but also suggesting that the pace of growth in activity is losing momentum. The figures show a slightly precarious recovery even
Micron Technology Inc on Wednesday predicted a steeper loss than anticipated in the current quarter, indicating that an industry slump is still weighing on the largest US maker of memory chips. The company projected a fiscal first-quarter loss of as much as US$1.14 a share, excluding some items. Analysts had estimated a US$0.96 loss. On the bright side, revenue is expected to start recovering in the period. Micron predicted sales of US$4.2 billion to US$4.6 billion, compared with an estimate of US$4.21 billion. For Micron and competitors Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, this year has been brutal. Customers in their
CONSOLIDATION: Asustek has inked a deal with Intel to sell Intel’s NUC products; it is planning to combine its mini-PC business and expand the number of engineers Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday signed an agreement with Intel Corp to take over the US chip giant’s compact computer business, dubbed the “next unit of computing” (NUC), allowing Asustek to design, manufacture and sell Intel’s 10th to 13th-generation NUC product lines. Asustek has created a new NUC business unit to develop future generations of NUC products and to handle Intel’s NUC clients, mostly PC vendors, Asustek said. Asustek plans to combine its existing mini-PC business with the new NUC unit, leading to a further workforce expansion from about 160 engineers at present. Based on the agreement, Asustek does not own the