Despite a rising threat from tablet PCs, netbooks are here to stay, said Scott Lin (林顯郎), president of Acer Inc’s (宏碁) Taiwan operations, yesterday.
“When netbooks were launched in 2007, I was asked the same question about whether they would replace traditional notebooks,” Lin told reporters yesterday. “Notebooks still exist today.”
He said “brand new star products” — such as the Eee PC introduced in 2007 by Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and the iPad from Apple Inc — would grab the public’s attention who would develop a fondness for them.
PHOTO: CHUO I-CHUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Competition will increase, but tablets won’t be able to eat away at the whole netbook pie, he said.
Citing statistics from Gartner Inc, Lin said worldwide netbook shipments this year would post 9 percent growth from last year to 35.6 million units and that number will approach 50 million in 2014.
Acer, the world’s second--largest PC brand, is the largest netbook brand and will ship about 10 million netbooks worldwide this year, he said.
However, Lin kept mum on the launch date for the company’s -tablet PC, only saying the company would launch products that will “wow the market with a strong selling point.”
Supply chain sources have said Acer is set to test the waters in Europe and the US by rolling out its first tablet model, which runs on a Windows operating system, this month.
The company yesterday -unveiled the industry’s first slew of netbooks with dual-core processors. The new “Happy” Aspire One netbooks feature dual operating systems — Android and Windows 7 Starter — and have a built-in 250GB hard drive, a specification that exceeds the maximum 160GB offered by the earlier generation.
The price tag is NT$13,800 (US$431) and they will be available in Taiwan this month.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
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