PC sales by value rose about 2 percent year-on-year to NT$12.66 billion (US$419 million) in the first half of this year as gaming PCs with higher price tags rose in popularity, data released by German market advisory firm GfK showed.
However, by volume, PC sales in the six-month period fell 5 percent from a year earlier to 511,000 units due to a continued decline in desktop PC shipments, GfK said.
Desktop PC sales have fallen almost 10 percent in the past two years, while notebook computer sales have shown resilience, with sales volume dropping only about 1 percent.
Taiwanese gaming PCs have been gaining popularity amid growing enthusiasm toward gaming competitions, which has boosted local PC consumption, GfK analyst Wang Jung-hsuan (王榕萱) said.
The average selling price for PCs in the local market rose in the first half, with average prices for notebook computers rising to NT$25,000 from NT$24,000 in the same period last year, GfK said.
As for desktop PCs, prices rose to NT$18,000 from less than NT$17,000 two years earlier, GfK said.
Since international brands launched ultra-thin notebooks in 2015, such models have seen increasing sales, Wang said.
Models less than 2cm thick and weighing less than 2kg accounted for 34 percent of the total PC market in Taiwan, she said.
Wang said that since high-capacity PCs hit the market in 2014 and as gaming grows in popularity, both desktop and notebook models have been growing strongly.
High capacity PCs made up almost 20 percent of the total PC market at the end of June, Wang said.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS