Qualcomm Inc says it expects its customers to launch wearable devices equipped with its chips later this year, although the company does not have dedicated chips for such devices now.
However, the world’s top mobile phone chip supplier is hoping to catch up with Taiwanese rival MediaTek Inc (聯發科), which already tapped into the fledgling market six months ago.
“Qualcomm has all the technologies needed,” Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Taiwan president Eddie Chang (張力行) said yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference. “This year, you will see wearable devices carrying Qualcomm chips.”
He declined to reveal details about Qualcomm’s wearables programs, but said the company may consider making chips specifically designed for wearable devices if the market reached a large scale.
Last month, market researcher International Data Corp forecast global shipments of wearable devices would more than triple from last year to more than 19 million units this year. The market would expand at a compound annual growth rate of 78.4 percent during the next few years to 111.9 million units in 2018, IDC said.
In November last year, MediaTek said Hong Kong-based Omate had adopted its dual-core MT6572 handset chip for its TrueSmart smartwatch.
Last month, the company said it planned to ship a new low-power chip, dubbed Aster, designed for wearable devices later this quarter, while unveiling the new chip at a product launch in Beijing.
Last month, MediaTek president Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) told investors that the company had secured orders from smartphone customers and watch manufacturers.
Meanwhile, Chang said more 64-bit processors from different companies would be commercialized this year.
The 64-bit processor has become a hot topic and a new standard for high-end smartphones after Apple Inc’s iPhone 5S adopted a 64-bit processor, speeding its data processing by 50 percent over previous iPhone models.
Qualcomm launched its new 64-bit Snapdragon 810 and Snapdragon 808 processors last month, which are to be manufactured on 20-nanometer technology by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
End products equipped with the company’s latest 64-bit processors are expected to be available in the first half of next year, Qualcomm said.
MediaTek has said it would launch its first 64-bit processor by the end of this year.
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
RSS