Wed, Jan 21, 2015 page14

• Taiwan Business Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  ELECTRONICS

  Wistron opens facility

  Taiwan’s Wistron Corp (緯創), one of the world’s largest contract electronics makers, opened a research center in Greater Kaohsiung on Tuesday to increase its presence in software product development. Wistron chairman Simon Lin (林憲明) said at an inauguration ceremony that recruitment for the new research center has surpassed the company’s expectations over the past month. With the aim of attracting local engineers, Wistron is planning to expand its Taiwan research bases from Taipei and Kaohsiung to more areas across the nation, Lin was quoted as saying in a company statement. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) promised at the ceremony that the city government would help Wistron achieve its hiring target of 200 people as soon as possible, and she expressed hope that the company would create 2,000 jobs in Kaohsiung through more investment in the long term. Wistron employs more than 4,000 software engineers worldwide to develop applications for smart schools, enterprise solutions, mobile solutions and platform services, according to the company.

  SMARTPHONES

  HTC misses top 10 list

  Six Chinese companies were on a list of the world’s top 10 smartphone brands in terms of shipments last year, but HTC Corp (宏達電) did not make the cut, according to a Taipei-based market research firm. The six Chinese brands were Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Huawei Technologies Co (華為), Xiaomi Corp (小米), Coolpad Group Ltd (酷派), ZTE Corp (中興), and TCL Corp, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report released yesterday. Lenovo, which merged with Motorola last year, was in third place on the list, after Samsung of South Korea and Apple Inc of the US, the report said. LG, also a South Korean brand, ranked fourth, followed by Huwei, Xiaomi and Coolpad in that order, the report said. Sony of Japan, ZTE and TCL rounded out the top 10, the research firm said. After the merger with Motorola, Lenovo shipped 90 million smartphone units last year, TrendForce said. The figure represented an annual growth of more than 100 percent and put Lenovo in first place among smartphone makers in China and in third spot globally with a market share of 7.9 percent, the research firm said.

  CROSS-STRAIT TIES

  Standards group planned

  Taiwan and China will jointly set up a working group this year to develop common standards for four information technology sectors, a Taipei-based cross-strait association promoting industrial standards said on Tuesday. The four IT segments are key components such as integrated circuits and panels, communication protocols such as the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, the Internet of Things and cloud computing applications, and smart cities, said Rock Hsu (許勝雄), vice chairman of Taiwan’s Sinocon Industrial Standards Foundation (華聚產業共同標準基金會), which was set up in December 2005 to form common IT development platforms for the Greater China region. To achieve the target, the foundation and its Chinese counterparts will assemble a working group later this year that will have academics and specialists study the standards of the four IT sectors, Hsu said. Smart city applications, for example, have begun trial operations in more than 200 Chinese cities, with another 400 Chinese cities expected to join the lineup in the near term, he said.
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