For a stark depiction of how Taiwan’s technology industry has been ravaged by the rise of the smartphone and the fall of the desktop computer, look at Asia’s stock market.
The 10 worst performers in Morgan Stanley’s 106-member Asia-Pacific Infotech Index this year come from Taiwan, once the leader of computer innovation and a powerhouse in hardware and semiconductor manufacturing.
The sagging companies include former PC giant Acer Inc (宏碁) and its manufacturing spinoff Wistron Corp (緯創) — both are down 40 percent — and smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電), once the biggest seller in the US.
Those suppliers of ubiquitous electronics products from memory-chips to flat-panel displays have lost more than US$23 billion in market capitalization so far this year, or about the equivalent of an HP Inc.
By contrast, the top performers are all Japanese, led by automotive electronics maker Alps Electric Co and games distributor Nexon Co.
“Being heavily exposed to PCs has been tough a place to be this year because of economic weakness in Asia, where the market had previously remained relatively robust,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anand Srinivasan said.
The index’s worst-performing stock is Epistar Corp, a maker of light-emitting diodes used in electronic displays that has plummeted 61 percent this year, as of yesterday morning.
TPK Holding Co, inventor of the touchscreen for Apple Inc’s first iPhone, was eclipsed by new Chinese and Hong Kong entrants and has shed almost half its value.
HTC’s downfall reflects the rise of smartphone start-ups, including Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Guangdong OPPO Electronics Co (廣東省步步高電子工業).
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