TECHNOLOGY
SmartTVs to give archive
LG Electronics Inc, Panasonic Corp and Royal Philips NV will introduce televisions next year equipped with Swedish software so users can watch television channels flexibly online. Magine AB’s cloud service lets users with an Internet link scan its TV schedules, surf channels, rewind shows and access archived content dating back 30 days via a tablet, telephone, computer or TV. The application will be available on the smart TVs in the first quarter of next year in European countries where Magine operates. “We see already that people are using this on the subway, at work and home, and we are seeing an increase in TV watching in general with it,” Magine chief executive officer Mattias Hjelmstedt said in a phone interview. The company will show off the system this week at the Mipcom TV market in Cannes, France.
INTERNET
UK Internet ad spending up
Spending on Internet advertising in Britain jumped by nearly a fifth in the first half of this year to ￡3 billion (US$4.85 billion), lifted by mobile video advertisements and marketing on social media by brands cashing in on signs of economic recovery. Spending on mobile phones alone rose 127 percent to ￡429.2 million from ￡188.1 million in the year-ago period, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau yesterday. Brands selling consumer goods such as clothing, food and jewelry became the biggest users of mobile advertising, almost doubling their share to 26.8 percent from 14.5 percent, the bureau said.
TIRES
Apollo shares boosted
Shares of India’s Apollo Tyres rose as much as 4.13 percent yesterday on growing uncertainty over a US$2.5 billion deal announced this year to buy out US-based Cooper Tire & Rubber. The Indian tire maker said it was “working diligently” to resolve issues to finalize the merger with Cooper, which has accused Apollo of delaying the deal. “Apollo remains firmly of the belief that a merger with Cooper is compelling from a strategic perspective,” Apollo said in a statement on Sunday. The deal had been expected to be completed by the end of the year to create the world’s seventh-largest tire producer.
AVIATION
Firm halts temporary layoffs
Sikorsky, maker of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, has dropped plans to furlough thousands of workers without pay because of the US government shutdown, a spokesperson said Sunday. The United Technologies affiliate pulled back after the Pentagon announced it was recalling most of its estimated 400,000 furloughed civilian workers despite the shutdown. “We’re relieved that the temporary layoffs and further disruption have been avoided. Our focus now turns to restoring full production levels,” Sikorsky’s spokesman said.
AVIATION
Rolls-Royce wins US contract
Rolls-Royce, the British maker of aircraft engines, announced yesterday that it had won two maintenance contracts from the US government worth together up to US$496 million. Rolls-Royce will provide parts and maintenance for thousands of T56 engines powering US military aircraft, under a six-year contract worth US$406 million, the company said in a statement. It has also won a five-year deal from the US Navy worth up to US$90 million to deliver engine repairs to E-2 Hawkeye aircraft.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS