■ Semiconductors
Chipmakers face probe
US prosecutors are close to filing criminal price-fixing charges against computer chipmakers accused of colluding to exchange pricing and production plans, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a disclosed e-mail and testimony from unidentified industry executives. Samsung Electronics Co, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, Infineon Technologies AG and Micron Technology Inc are among companies that are being investigated by a federal grand jury in San Francisco for accusations of price conspiracy, the newspaper said. The US Federal Trade Commission, undertaking a separate case, has disclosed new evidence that supports the allegations and according to lawyers close to the case some of the chipmakers are considering making plea deals, the paper said.
■ Mobile Phones
Color screens are No. 1
Global sales of color screens for mobile phones will overtake monochrome displays this year, driven by the rising number of people who want to take photographs with their handsets, market researcher Isuppli Corp said. Global shipments of color liquid crystal displays geared for mobile phones will rise 52 percent to 393 million units this year, while monochrome screen sales will fall 26 percent to 264 million units, Isuppli said. Color phones screen sales will rise 26 percent next year to 495 million units, or almost double the number of monochrome units.
■ Statistics
Singapore's GDP up 1.1%
Singapore's economy grew 1.1 percent last year, faster than the preliminary estimate of 0.8 percent, the government said yesterday. The better-than-expected performance was boosted by a strong showing in the second-half of last year which saw GDP expand 16.1 percent and 11 percent in the third and fourth quarter respectively, the ministry of trade and industry (MTI) said. For next year, the growth targets have been raised from 3.0-5.0 percent to 3.5-5.5 percent, the MTI said. "The outlook for Singapore's economic growth in 2004 will continue to improve," Friedrich Wu, the MTI's economic division director, said at a media briefing.
■ Entertainment
Sony delays PSP release
Sony Corp will delay the planned release of its first hand-held player, called PSP, in the US and Europe because it wants developers to have more time to make games for the device. Sony has postponed until March 31 next year the planned December release of PSP in the US and Europe, said Nanako Kato, a spokes-woman of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, the company's game unit in Tokyo. The company left unchanged its plans to sell the device in Japan from December, she said.
■ Semiconductors
TI ready for 3G test
Texas Instruments Inc, the world's largest maker of semiconductors that power cellular phones, said its first sample of a chip based on China's home-grown third-generation mobile technology will be ready for testing by June. The chip, developed by Shanghai-based Commit, whose shareholders include Texas Instruments, Nokia Oyj and LG Electronics Inc, could be mass produced by the end of this year, Terry Cheng, the company's Asia president, said at a semiconductor conference in Shanghai. The chip is based on China's time-division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, technology.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
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