Acer Inc (宏碁) said yesterday netbooks could make up as much as 25 percent of its total notebook computer shipments this year, as more telecoms operators have started selling low-cost laptops along with regular services.
Acer, the world’s third-largest PC maker, has said it may ship between 12 million and 15 million netbook laptops this year. It said it shipped 33.54 million laptops last year, citing market researcher Gartner Inc’s tally. The PC company did not provide figures on its netbook shipments for last year.
“Demand in the US is still strong because more telecoms operators are selling our netbooks bundled with their services. They see third-generation services as a means to help boost their business,” Acer chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) said. “Consumers are willing to spend money on netbooks during the economic downturn.”
Research firm IDC has raised its forecast for global netbook shipments this year by 20 percent to 26.4 million from its previous estimate of 22 million units, on the back of strong demand from Latin America, Asia and the US.
This year, netbook shipments may account for 15 percent to 25 percent of Acer’s total notebook shipments, Wang said.
That would help Acer achieve its goal of deposing Hewlett Packard Co as the world’s largest notebook computer maker next year, one year earlier than its original target year of 2011, Wang said.
Acer is currently ranked No. 2 with a 19.7 percent share of the world’s laptop computer market, while Hewlett Packard has 22.1 percent, Wang said.
Overall sales of notebook computers were a bit slow recently as the bleak economy in the US and Europe curtailed purchases of computers, Wang said, adding that he remained cautious about the outlook for the PC industry.
Tight supplies of key components also dragged down the pace of the industry’s recovery, he said.
Acer shares climbed 3.19 percent to NT$58.2 yesterday, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX index, which rose 2.95 percent yesterday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day