Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信) yesterday said that it is mulling selling Japanese telecom Softbank Corp’s Pepper humanoid robots in Taiwan next year in an effort to expand its value-added services.
The robot, developed by Softbank and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday made its Taiwanese debut at Asia Pacific’s flagship store in the Syntrend Creative Park (三創).
“Pepper’s first appearance is supported by Softbank... We are training the robot to speak Chinese and working on Japanese-Chinese romanization of the applications,” Asia Pacific chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) told reporters. “We need to work with local application developers to build a bigger knowledge base for Pepper so that it can be used in different industries.”
Photo: CNA
In Japan, Nestle cafe use Peppers to sell coffee and the robots also help telecoms sell their services, Lu said.
In Taiwan, Asia Pacific aims to expand the services to education and as a companion to elderly people, he said.
Asia Pacific is to partner with Syntrend and hold a contest to develop applications for the robots that are suitable for local industries, Syntrend chairman Jeff Gou (郭守正) said yesterday.
Gou Shou-cheng is the son of Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘).
Asked when the robots would be available in Taiwan, Lu said: “We hope to introduce Pepper to the Taiwanese market as soon as possible, but we need more time to build a knowledge-based software platform for human-robot interactions.”
“We will strive to” sell the robot next year, he said.
It took about a year for Softbank to ship Pepper robots after their launch, Lu said.
“A lot of companies in different industries have expressed an interest in Pepper,” he said.
On Thursday, Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) president James Jeng (鄭俊卿) said he was very interested in the humanoid robot and hoped to hire some for use at the company’s stores.
Commenting on Asia Pacific’s business outlook for next year, Lu said the company aims to double the number of its 4G subscribers from this year’s 700,000 by luring subscribers from local rivals.
Lu said the company’s capital spending next year would be on par with this year’s NT$6 billion (US$181.81 million) and most would be used to deploy small cell base stations for its newly acquired 4G 2.6-gigahertz bandwidth.
The new 4G network is set to start commercial operations in the second quarter of next year, he said.
Asia Pacific also plans to invest an unspecified amount on developing 5G technology next year and the year after, Lu said.
The company aims to expand its 5G workforce to 200 people from more than 100 and it is also working with other institutions to develop 5G technology, he said.
He expects 5G networks to start commercial operations in 2020 in line with most global telecoms’ expectations.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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