DBS Bank Taiwan (星展銀行) and Chubb Corp Taiwan (美商安達產險) have unveiled a new type of insurance to cover accidental damage to old cellphones, a first in the sector.
Insurance policies for mobile devices are becoming popular among Taiwanese, but they all cover new phones and clients can only purchase policies when buying a new device from a telecom, the bank said on Tuesday.
“Providing insurance products for old cellphones is a ‘blue ocean’ market, as there are no competitors,” DBS consumer banking managing director Seraph Sun (孫可基) said by telephone.
As many people cannot buy insurance policies for their mobile phones because they bought them online or they do not want to insure their new devices with telecoms, DBS and Chubb have seized the opportunity to provide an alternative solution, Sun said.
Despite concerns that insuring old cellphones might carry higher risks for insurance companies, DBS and Chubb said they would only provide coverage for mobile phones that are not broken.
Chubb has designed an app to be downloaded by potential customers, which examines whether the applicants’ cellphone functions regularly and whether its screen is broken, Sun said, adding that the examination takes about three minutes.
Insurance applications can be made online from the beginning to the end, he added.
“We will not offer insurance for broken or malfunctioning devices. We want to keep it simple and only concentrate on phones that are old, but still in good working condition,” Sun said.
Customers would be charged NT$98 to NT$358 per month, depending on the original price of their cellphones, he said.
For example, a policyholder would pay NT$358 per month if their mobile phone cost more than NT$30,000, such as an Apple Inc iPhone XS, Sun said.
Tens of models manufactured by more than 10 companies are covered by the policies, he said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based