Smartphone maker HTC Corp will boost its patent portfolio after competitor Apple Inc flexed its muscles to block HTC products in the US market, chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said yesterday.
“Apple is a company with a lot of muscle,” Wang said on the sidelines of a ceremony to celebrate the company’s 15th anniversary.
“This is our challenge,” Wang said. “HTC is not afraid of the challenge and will persevere through continuous innovation.”
The chairwoman’s comments came as the company opened its new global headquarters in Sindian Distict (新店), New Taipei City (新北市), yesterday. Wang said the new headquarters demonstrated the Taiwanese brand’s determination.
The new 17-story headquarters will employ 2,000 people, including 1,000 research and development staff, who will use more than half of the building’s space. The new building also achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification by incorporating a number of sustainable energy design elements.
HTC had first dreamed of transforming the cellphone market 15 years ago, Wang said, and that dream became a reality when it made the world’s first smartphone 10 years ago. Now, HTC is working on 4G LTE technology, Wang added.
“HTC will keep dreaming,” she said, adding that the high rate of consumers replacing smartphones means HTC is in the right market.
Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs, who also attended the ceremony, said that HTC and Qualcomm began cooperating in 2008 on the HTC G1 3G Android mobile phone, adding that they began working on Windows phones in 2010.
“Now we are working together on 4G LTE, so we have worked together from 3G to 4G,” Jacobs said.
The relationship with Taiwan is very important to Qualcomm because of companies like HTC and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and events like Computex, he said, adding that Qualcomm has been getting most of its 28-nanometer chips from TSMC for its smartphone and tablet customers.
AT&T senior vice president of devices Jeff Bradley said his company is impressed by HTC’s products and honored to be the sole carrier of HTC One X in the US market.
The two companies have been working together for more than a decade, he added.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
RSS