Following on from the success of its 60-inch LCD TVs, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密) — which makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc and televisions for Sony Corp — yesterday launched a new 40-inch LED monitor in collaboration with local telecoms and multiple-system operators.
The 40-inch LED monitor is the second product using flat screens from Sharp Corp’s 10th-generation LCD plant in Sakai City, Japan, representing the latest effort by Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) to help Sharp Display Products Corp (SDP), which operates the factory, turn a profit by reducing inventories.
Gou and several Hon Hai subsidiaries own a 46.5 percent stake in SDP, while Sharp and Sony hold 46.5 percent and 7 percent stakes, respectively.
CONTRACT
The Taiwanese company signed a contract with Sharp in March last year to purchase half of SDP’s output.
The nation’s leading telecoms operator, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), and cable TV system operator Kbro Corp (凱擘) will offer the 40-inch full high-definition LED monitor in Taiwan.
“We have sold about 1,000 units of Hon Hai’s 60-inch LCD TVs a month since November last year,” Kbro’s chief operating officer Jessica Hsu (許芝蘭) said in a statement yesterday.
“We expect the new 40-inch monitor will be as popular as the 60-inch TV because 40-inch monitors are standard in the Taiwanese digital TV market,” Hsu said.
The 40-inch monitor will be available on April 22 for NT$8,800, (US$267) bundled with Kbro’s TV service package for a minimum monthly fee of NT$299 for two years.
However, consumers will have to add a TV tuner to transform the monitor into an average smart TV that can support an Internet connection.
Hsu said she expects Kbro’s digital content penetration rate to rise to 50 percent by the end of this year from 30 percent.
Chunghwa Telecom, which has sold more than 10,000 Hon Hai 60-inch LCD TVs over the past five months, said the 40-inch monitor would cost its subscribers a minimum monthly fee of NT$359 for its Internet TV services and fiber optic Internet connection on a two year contract.
LOWER COSTS
Meanwhile, Hon Hai yesterday said lower manufacturing costs caused by the weaker Japanese yen had allowed it to reduce the price of its 60-inch TV by NT$5,000 to NT$33,800, for both Chunghwa Telecom and Kbro subscribers.
Customers who have already bought the 60-inch TV will receive a cash refund or a gift coupon worth NT$5,000, according to a press release.
Hon Hai said it is committed to developing more large-size TVs in the future.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS