Britain’s Argos has entered the intensely competitive tablet computer market with a ￡99.99 (US$160) own-brand product that is 16 percent cheaper than one launched by Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, last month.
Argos, owned by Home Retail, yesterday said its MyTablet would be targeted at teenagers, taking on a market dominated by Apple, Samsung and Amazon.
Tesco sold 35,000 Hudls in two days following its Sept. 30 launch — the fastest-selling tablet launch ever seen at the retailer. Argos is keen to tap into this growing segment as part of its reinvention from a catalogue-led to digitally-led business.
Home Retail has posted five straight years of profit decline and hopes the change of direction for Argos will result in a 15 percent rise in sales to ￡4.5 billion by 2018.
Like Tesco’s Hudl, which is priced at ￡119, Argos’ MyTablet has a seven-inch screen, runs Google’s Android operating system, comes with pre-loaded apps and is enabled for Internet browsing, TV, music, video streaming and social networking. However, MyTablet only has 8 gigabytes of standard memory compared with 16 on the Hudl. It also has a lower-resolution screen, inferior battery life and is only available in two colors versus the Hudl’s four.
Both devices will compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which retails for ￡99, Google’s Nexus 7, which costs ￡199 and Apple’s iPad mini, which sells for ￡269.
“Millions of people have bought tablets during the last year, but there is still around 75 percent of the UK population without one,” Argos managing director John Walden said.
Market research company EMarketer estimates there are 19.7 million tablet users in the UK, up 39 percent from a year ago.
Both Argos and Tesco sell a range of branded tablets.
Sebastian James, CEO of Dixons Retail, said last month that although there is a market in Britain for cheap tablets, consumers were often disappointed by purchases.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS