A small Taiwanese PC firm with lofty ambitions is preparing to take the next step in the own-brand PC industry with First International Computer Inc’s (FIC, 大眾電腦) release of its first tablet computer.
The 30-year-old company makes notebooks and desktops on a contract manufacturing basis and also ships PCs carrying own-brand logos in Japan, the US and China in small volumes.
It has decided to heighten its global profile by rolling out a slew of tablets that will carry the “FIC” logo beginning next year. The foray will first begin on its home turf, with its first tablet scheduled to be launched on Saturday.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
“FIC has been laying low for quite awhile and our performance wasn’t very impressive either in the past few years,” FIC’s chief operating officer Leo Chien (簡民智) said. “Next year is the time for us to make a hike up the hill and we will make the splash with tablets.”
Chien said the company sniffed the trend of a tablet revival early this year and launched research and development activities in April.
“Users need something that is even more portable than a netbook. With tablets weighing less than 1kg, it is a good fit,” he said.
The tablet FIC showcased yesterday has been designated “Tycoon,” and is targeted at business executives that demand productivity on the go.
The 10.1-inch model runs on Windows 7, sports a 120GB hard drive, an Intel Atom N455 processor and weighs 840g. It will start selling on the U-Life TV shopping channel on Saturday, with telecom partners, including Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信), to sell the device later.
Tycoons will sell for NT$19,800 apiece, compared with Apple iPad’s US$499 entry-level price with Wi-Fi connectivity and 16GB of storage capacity.
Chien said the shipments in Taiwan would be a few thousand units a month. Total volume will round up to 50,000 units per month if shipments to overseas contract clients are taken into account.
Despite taking a lead over Taiwanese PC peers by launching a tablet, FIC is set to compete against giants Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) in winning over users’ hearts.
Acer is set to announce its first tablets in New York at the end of the month, while Asustek will unveil its own version in January.
Meanwhile, Vibo is also following in the tablet chase with plans to launch its own-brand tablet called “Vpad” next week.
Vibo president Chang Feng--hsiung (張豐雄) told reporters yesterday that the 7-inch model will run on the Android 2.2 operating system.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in on a pressing national issue: The rebranding of a restaurant chain. Last week, Cracker Barrel, a Tennessee company whose nationwide locations lean heavily on a cozy, old-timey aesthetic — “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table” — announced it was updating its logo. Uncle Herschel, the man who once appeared next to the letters with a barrel, was gone. It sparked ire on the right, with Donald Trump Jr leading a charge against the rebranding: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” Later, Trump Sr weighed
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
HEADWINDS: Upfront investment is unavoidable in the merger, but cost savings would materialize over time, TS Financial Holding Co president Welch Lin said TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控) said it would take about two years before the benefits of its merger with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) become evident, as the group prioritizes the consolidation of its major subsidiaries. “The group’s priority is to complete the consolidation of different subsidiaries,” Welch Lin (林維俊), president of the nation’s fourth-largest financial conglomerate by assets, told reporters during its first earnings briefing since the merger took effect on July 24. The asset management units are scheduled to merge in November, followed by life insurance in January next year and securities operations in April, Lin said. Banking integration,
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
RSS