SMARTPHONES
IDC sees low-cost growth
A research firm on Wednesday forecast that global smartphone sales are to jump 23 percent this year to more than 1.2 billion units, fueled by growth of low-cost handsets in emerging markets. An IDC survey predicts that smartphone sales will maintain an annual growth rate of 12.3 percent through 2018. Much of the growth is expected to come from low-cost devices using the Android operating system, with Apple Inc’s market share eroding, Microsoft Windows making modest gains and BlackBerry fading further, IDC said. The research firm said it expects Android to remain ahead of the pack with an 80.4 percent market share this year, and to lose a modest amount of ground to Windows over the coming years. The report said BlackBerry’s market share will be less than 1 percent this year — 0.8 percent, and keep dropping to 0.3 percent in 2018.
ECONOMY
Merkel tops ‘Forbes’ list
German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful women for the fourth consecutive year, followed by US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the magazine said on Wednesday. Behind them came Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and IMF chief Christine Lagarde. Hillary Clinton, former US first lady, one-time US secretary of state and possible repeat US presidential hopeful, was listed at No. 6. The annual list includes women in business, media, politics, technology, entertainment, philanthropy and nonprofits, billionaires and finance, a new category for the first time. Top businesswomen on the list include General Motors CEO Mary Barra (No. 7) — subject of the Forbes cover story — Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (No. 9) and IBM CEO Virginia Rometty (No. 10).
SPAIN
Spending raises Q1 growth
Growth gained momentum in the first quarter in Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, as household and government spending increased. Gross domestic product increased 0.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, the National Statistics Institute in Madrid said yesterday, confirming its April 30 first estimate. Growth accelerated from 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter as household spending rebounded, it said. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is counting on a recovery from a six-year slump to tackle the fourth-largest budget deficit in the EU amid a 25 percent jobless rate.
PHILIPPINES
Growth slides to 5.7%
Economic growth eased to below 6 percent for the first time in nine quarters, giving the central bank scope to keep interest rates at a record low. Stocks and the peso fell. GDP increased 5.7 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in Manila yesterday, after a 6.3 percent gain in the previous quarter. The median estimate of 22 economists was 6.4 percent. The fallout of natural disasters including Super Typhoon Haiyan in November last year weighed on growth last quarter, and the pace will pick up, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said yesterday. “This will probably be one of the weakest quarters this year,” said Philip McNicholas, a senior economist at BNP Paribas SA in Hong Kong. “The acceleration of the investment cycle as the Aquino administration moves to deal with the infrastructure deficit should boost growth later this year,” he said.
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.
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