■ Camcorders
Digital shipments rising
Sony Corp, Canon Inc and other makers of digital camcorders will see world-wide shipments exceed 15 million units in 2008, from 92.9 million last year, mar-ket researcher IDC said. Global shipments of digital camcorders will reach 15.1 million in 2008, up 63 per-cent from last year, said Christopher Chute, senior analyst at Massachusetts-based IDC. Digital cam-corder sales are growing
as consumers shift from analog models for the increased resolution from digital models. Higher spending by consumers in the US and Europe is also driving sales of digital camcorders. Global ship-ments of consumer cam-corders including digital and analog reached 13 million units last year. Last year 71 per-cent of global camcorder shipments were digital and 29 percent analog. Sony last year was the leading supplier of digital camcorders, with a 44 percent share of the global market. Canon was No.2, with a 19 percent share, according to IDC.
■ Aviation
New budget carrier takes off
Nok Air, Thailand's newest budget airline, took to the skies for the first time yesterday, a spokesman said. The inaugural flight of Nok Air, partly owned by Thai Airways International, flew from Bangkok to the northern city of Udon Thani, a company spokes-man said. It also began services to Chiang Mai and Hat Yai. It will offer 20 flights daily until October, when it will begin flying to Phuket, the spokesman said. Nok Air is leasing two Boeing 737-400 planes and cockpit crews from Thai Airways, which owns a 39 percent share of the airline, the official said. Nok Air is the third no-frills carrier to set up in Thailand. Orient Thai Airlines last year set up 1-2-GO, and Thai Air Asia, a joint venture with Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia, began flights within the kingdom in February.
■ Banking
Sojitz gets bailed out
Japanese lenders Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ Holdings and others will bail out ailing borrower Sojitz Holdings ahead of the banks' planned merger next year, reports said yesterday. The banks, along with Swiss bank UBS, will inject about ?250 billion to ?300 billion (US$2.3 billion to US$2.7 billion) in capital into the major trading firm in exchange for preferred shares, the Nihon Keizai and Yomiuri dailies reported. Sojitz, formed in April last year from the merger of Nissho Iwai and Nichimen, is one of UFJ's largest borrowers and rebuilding its finances is one of UFJ's major priorities before merging with MTFG, reports said. Sojitz will aim to cut its debts by ?500 billion to ?1 trillion by March 2007 in the new plan. The firm forecast a ?50 billion net profit in the year to next March, but an expected ?250 billion write-down may push it into the red, the Nihon Keizai said.
■ Telecoms
AT&T shifts focus
AT&T said on Thursday that it would shift focus to business telephone services and to emerging technol-ogies such as the voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), which lets people call each other over the Internet. "As a result of recent changes in regulatory policy governing local telephone service, AT&T will no longer be competing for residential local and standalone long-distance customers," it said in a statement. AT&T said it would still service existing residential customers but stop investing in gaining new clients.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
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