Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) subsidiary Perobot Co Ltd (沛博科技) yesterday launched Softbank Corp’s Pepper, marking the humanoid robot’s official entry into the Taiwanese commercial market.
The launch was also the first time Pepper has been made available outside of Japan, after the robot was launched on the Japanese market in June last year.
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), a subsidiary of Hon Hai, has started taking preorders from businesses, Asia Pacific Telecom chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) said.
Photo: CNA
“We are now taking preorders and plan to begin shipping the products to enterprises in late September,” Lu, who doubles as a vice president at Hon Hai, told a news conference.
Pepper is available to business clients through a 24-month rental contract, in which they would pay a NT$26,888 monthly rental fee, Lu said.
By contrast, Japanese enterprise clients pay a ￥55,000 (US$517.42) monthly fee through 36-month rental contracts.
Services included in the monthly rental fee include customized speech for Pepper, technical support, software upgrades and post-sales service, Lu said, adding that Perobot would replace a broken unit within 24 hours to ensure Pepper’s operational uptime.
The robot can speak Chinese, English and Japanese, Lu said, adding that Hon Hai has not ruled out the adding the ability to speak Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).
Initial preorders by First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and hypermarket chain operator Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福) have already reached more than 100 units, according to Perobot, the local sales distributor and after-sales service provider.
Lu said he hopes monthly sales of Pepper in Taiwan will reach 60 units by the first half of next year, which is lower than the Japanese market’s 1,000 units per month.
Perobot general manager Vincent Lin (林義勛) said the company initially plans to focus on expanding Pepper’s reach in the Taiwanese commercial market.
“Compared with consumers in Japan, Taiwanese are relatively unfamiliar with the capabilities of service robots,” Lin said, adding that the company would rather wait for Taiwanese to become used to the robot’s presence and learn how to use it, instead of immediately introducing it for household use.
Lin said that Perobot welcomes the introduction of Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) service robot Zenbo to the market, as more service robots would help to accelerate the expansion of the industry.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
RSS