TECHNOLOGY
AmTran faces patent probe
Taiwan-based LED TV assembler AmTran Technology Co (瑞軒) and its California subsidiary, AmTran Logistics Inc, are facing an investigation by the US International Trade Commission. In a statement released on Thursday, the commission said AmTran has been accused of infringing on patents asserted by Graphics Properties Holdings Inc, a patent-holding company in the US that filed a complaint with the commission on May 17 demanding an investigation. In addition to AmTran, the complainant has alleged that Japan’s Panasonic Corp and Toshiba Corp, China’s ZTE Corp (中興) and Vizio Inc, a US-based TV brand owned by AmTran, stole its technology. According to the commission, the investigation will involve certain electronic products, including notebook computers, tablet computers, desktop computers, TV sets and high-definition camcorders, along with DVD players that have display and processing capabilities.
TELECOMS
Operators, Hon Hai team up
The nation’s two biggest telecoms yesterday announced that they will sell 70-inch LCD TVs made by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for NT$58,800 along with their Internet TV service packages. It is an extension of the partnership between Chung-hwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Hon Hai that began in November last year, when the companies teamed up to sell Hon Hai’s 60-inch LCD TVs. Chunghwa Telecom said it has attracted 12,000 subscribers for its Internet TV service.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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