■ ELECTRONICS
Apple rolls out new models
Apple on Tuesday rolled out new iPhone and iPod Touch models with beefed-up memory and bumped-up prices. A premium iPhone with 16 gigabytes of memory and a US$499 price tag is now the top of that line, ahead of a model with half the memory and a price of US$399. An iPod Touch with 32 gigabytes of memory costs US$499, relegating the US$399 16-gigabyte model to second position. Apple sells an eight-gigabyte iPod Touch for US$299. IPod Touch models are essentially iPhones without the mobile telephone capabilities.
■ INTERNET
Google offers new filters
Google on Tuesday began marketing new online tools for protecting e-mail from spam and other problems as it continued to challenge Microsoft. Google unveiled e-mail security services built with technology from Postini, a start-up that the Internet titan bought last year for US$625 million. The software protects, filters, encrypts and archives e-mail, and is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise. Google said subscription pricing for e-mail security starts at US$3 a year to "accommodate the budget of any business." Premium services that include virus protection and saving messages is priced at US$25 annually.
■ AVIATION
TAL parts for Boeing
Boeing Co, which is at least eight months behind schedule on delivering the 787 Dreamliner commercial jet, said it will partner with a unit of India's Tata group to build components for the aircraft. Boeing signed an agreement to partner with TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd to make floor beams for the 787, Boeing said today.
■ AEROSPACE
Bigelow looks to military
An aerospace company is negotiating to use a military rocket to ferry hardware, crew and cargo to a planned commercial space station, privately held Bigelow Aerospace said on Tuesday. Bigelow plans to build and operate an expandable commercial orbital outpost in late 2011 but needs the use of a reusable launch vehicle. The deal, if approved, would include six initial launches of an Atlas V rocket, said Mike Gold, Bigelow's corporate counsel. The rocket is made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co.
■ BEVERAGES
Coke buys into Honest Tea
The Coca-Cola Co said on Tuesday that it bought a 40 percent stake in organic tea maker Honest Tea, adding to its offerings of non-cola beverages. The 40 percent stake cost roughly US$43 million, which puts the total value of Honest Tea at about US$110 million. Coca-Cola can add Honest Tea to a non-cola drinks portfolio that includes Glaceau's VitaminWater, which it purchased for US$4.1 billion in June.
■ EARNINGS
Hon Hai eyes 30% boost
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) is estimated to boost its annual sales by 30 percent this year to NT$2.6 trillion (US$81.3 billion), despite concerns of a global economic slowdown and the US subprime crisis, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) as saying. Gou expected Web networking, optoelectronics and wireless communications subsidiaries to grow the fastest this year, regardless of the US economic fallout, the newspaper reported. But Gou warned people not to overlook the potential impact from the US downturn, saying that growth in emerging markets like China and India would not be able to replace the loss in the US market, the paper said.
■ SOFTWARE
India delivers for SAP
SAP, the world's biggest business management software maker, said yesterday that India is now its fastest growing market as competition forces firms to use technology to cut costs. For the first time, India is among the German giant's top 10 markets, passing a "whole bunch of countries," SAP India head Ranjan Das told a news conference. The company's Indian unit had a record-breaking year last year by more than doubling its number of customers to 3,000 at the end of 2006. Overall revenue grew 68 percent, which was the fastest pace for SAP worldwide, Das said.
■ FOOD
New GM soy on the way
Monsanto Co, the world's biggest seed producer, said Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan approved imports of its first new genetically modified soybeans in more than a decade. Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds increase yields by 7 percent to 11 percent compared with first-generation Roundup Ready soybean seeds that have been sold since 1996, Monsanto said today. Monsanto plans to sell the seeds for release on as many as 810,000 hectares in the US in 2009 and on 2.43 million hectares in 2010.
■ INTERNET
Music downloads for China
Google Inc, owner of the world's most-used online search engine, has held talks with Universal Music Group to provide song downloads via the Web in China, the world's second-biggest Internet market by users. EMI Group Ltd and Sony BMG Music Entertainment may join Vivendi SA's Universal in offering free digital music downloads, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the talks. Google would work with Beijing-based Top100.cn, which sells licensed music downloads for 1 yuan (US$0.14) a song to operate the service, the Wall Street Journal reported. The record companies would earn royalties, it said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Daimler sales up 16%
Automaker Daimler AG said yesterday that sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars helped to increase global sales by 16 percent last month from the same time last year. The maker of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Maybach and Smart said it sold a record 90,400 cars last month compared with 77,700 in January last year. By brand, the company said it sold 82,300 Mercedes cars last month, up 12 percent from the 73,500 sold a year earlier, led by demand for its C-Class sedan and station wagon models. Demand was strong in the US, where sales rose 7 percent to 18,300 cars. In Asia, Mercedes-Benz sales rose 19 percent to 11,700 cars. In Germany, sales were up 13 percent to 15,500 cars.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
CHEMICAL FIRE: 10 Indian employees were injured by smoke inhalation at a Tata Electronics plant in Tamil Nadu state that produces components for Apple Inc At least 10 people received medical treatment, with two hospitalized after a major fire on Saturday disrupted production at a key Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd plant in southern India that makes Apple Inc’s iPhone components. The fire occurred at the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state that makes some iPhone components. It broke out near another building inside the Tata complex, which was to begin producing complete iPhones in the coming months. The fire was contained to one building and has been extinguished fully, top district administrative official K.M. Sarayu said. No decision has been made on when
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