Cathay to increase real estate
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the main subsidiary of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), yesterday approved board proposals to increase real-estate stakes both domestically and overseas, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
In particular, the insurer is to set up two special-purpose vehicles, companies which are to help save tax expenses and conduct property investment in London, the filings said. The nation’s largest insurer has channeled sizable funds overseas this year as soaring property prices in Taiwan raise the difficulty of meeting the minimum yield requirements.
HTC launches cheaper M8
Smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday launched a cheaper plastic model of its One M8 flagship smartphone in Taiwan, which costs almost half as much as the more expensive model, at NT$14,900.
The HTC One E8 is to go on sale at HTC stores on Thursday, and via major local telecoms on Aug. 1, the company said in a statement. The new phone supports full-spectrum 4G long-term evolution (LTE) connectivity in Taiwan, including the 700 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency bands, HTC said.
Acer Chromebook tops Samsung
Chromebook shipments by Acer Inc (宏碁) surpassed those of Samsung Electronics Co in the global market in the second quarter of the year, market researcher WitsView said yesterday.
Global Chromebook shipments totaled 1.8 million units in the April to June period, with Acer taking the largest share at 30 percent and Samsung holding a 24 percent share, WitsView said in a report. Hewlett-Packard Co had the third-largest with a 21 percent share.
In the first half of this year, Acer and Samsung each shipped about 900,000 Chromebooks, WitsView said. The affordable Web-centric device, however, is facing strong competition from low-cost Windows-based laptops priced between US$199 and US$249, it said.
Acer climbs in PC sales rank
PC shipments in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) increased 2 percent in the second quarter from the first quarter, but declined 10 percent from a year earlier to reach 24.3 million units, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. Lenovo Group (聯想) retained the top spot with a 26.6 percent market share.
Dell Inc retained the second spot with a 10.5 percent share backed by strong growth in some key emerging markets like India and Thailand due to its increasing focus on the consumer sector and better relations with suppliers, it said.
Hewlett-Packard Co was still in third place with a 10.4 percent market share, but Acer Inc (宏碁) replaced Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) in fourth spot, as Acer had grown in some key markets with attractive entry-level products, according to the IDC.
MediaTek chip is competitive
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) could increase its market share with its first 64-bit octa-core processor, according to market research firm NPD DisplaySearch.
The MT6795 octa-core smartphone chip, which supports 4G LTE services is likely to help MediaTek narrow the gap with global market leader Qualcomm Inc, the market research firm said in a blog post on Friday last week.
The chip supports 2K displays with a resolution of 2,560 pixels by 1,600 pixels and is expected to be in use by the fourth quarter of the year, MediaTek said.
DisplaySearch forecasted that 2K displays would account for 3.1 percent of smartphone shipments this year and 7.5 percent next year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
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