Wintek posts record sales
Touch-panel maker Wintek Corp (勝華), which counts Amazon and Nokia among its clients, on Thursday reported that consolidated sales hit a record NT$9.83 billion (US$325.9 million) last month.
The figure represented a rise of 74.22 percent from October and an increase of 10.97 percent from a year earlier.
In the first 11 months of this year, Wintek posted NT$83.21 billion in consolidated sales, up 46.11 percent from a year ago.
“I think the sales growth largely came from the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet computers, while Nokia’s efforts to launch new smartphone models also boosted demand,” Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) analyst Mars Hsu (徐振家) said.
Apple Inc and Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp (宏達電) are also major customers of Wintek.
HTC remains on top in US
Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp (宏達電) remained on top of the Google Android phone market in the US in the third quarter of this year, with a 15 percent share, according to a report on technology news Web site CNET.
Samsung and Motorola followed, with a market share of about 10 percent each, the report said, adding that HTC was also the top Windows Phone maker with a 4.7 percent share of the segment.
A newly released Nielsen research note said Android — Google’s mobile operating system — continued its reign as the leading smartphone platform of choice among US users.
Nonetheless, Apple Inc remained the dominant handset brand, the report said.
Android had a 42.8 percent share of US smartphone subscribers in the third quarter, leaving Apple’s iOS in second place with a 28.3 percent share, it said.
MediaTek to use Opera
Opera Software ASA, the Norwegian maker of Internet browsers, said Taiwan’s MediaTek Inc (聯發科) would include its Opera Mini browser in a software set for feature phones known as MediaTek Runtime Environment.
Shinkong Fibers plans buyback
Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp (新光合纖), a member of the Shin Kong Group (新光集團), plans to buy back 40 million common shares, or 2.19 percent of its total outstanding stock, at between NT$6.50 and NT$13 each from today to Feb. 1, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Telcos to offer faster services
Two government-owned Chinese telecom companies yesterday said they would raise the speed of their broadband services while lowering their costs over the next five years, state-run media reported.
The announcement by China Telecom Corp (中國電信) and China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) — which together serve 90 percent of China’s broadband market — follows an anti-monopoly probe launched last month by the government.
The National Development and Reform Commission last month alleged the two firms had hindered other companies from entering the broadband market by working together to increase access costs and slow down Internet speeds.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against the US currency, declining NT$0.014 to close at NT$30.16 on a technical rebound from the heavy losses a day earlier, dealers said.
Despite the gains, the greenback fluctuated in a narrow range amid cautious sentiment ahead of the release of US non-farm payroll data later in the day, they said.
Turnover totaled US$650 million.
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
YEAR-END BOOST: The holiday shopping season in the US and Europe, combined with rising demand for AI applications, is expected to drive exports to a new high, the NDC said Taiwan’s business climate monitor improved last month, transitioning from steady growth for the first time in five months, as robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and new iPhone shipments boosted exports and corporate sales, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. The council uses a five-color system to measure the nation’s economic state, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” reflecting a recession. “Yellow-red” and “yellow-blue” suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker condition. The total score of the monitor’s composite index rose to 35 points from a revised 31 in August, ending a four-month
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
RSS