Taiwanese notebook PC manufacturers are expected to increase production by more than 45 percent this year, according to the findings of a survey released by trade sourcing group Global Sources Ltd yesterday.
The report, "Notebook PCs & Accessories: Supplier Capability in China and Taiwan," also shows that around 80 percent of Taiwan-ese manufacturers' output will be made in China. That figure compares to 65 percent last year, Global Sources said.
The report profiles 131 manufac-turers of notebook PCs and related accessories in China and Taiwan. It examines issues such as pricing, production capacity, research and development and design trends.
Based on the report, Taiwanese manufacturers -- including Quanta Computer Inc (
"Taiwan manufacturers produce six out of 10 notebook computers sold worldwide. Ninety-two percent of their output is sold under the leading brand names in the industry, such as Compaq, Toshiba, HP and Dell. To provide their customers high-volume, low-cost manufacturing, Taiwan companies rely on contract manufacturers in China," Global Sources Publisher Mark Saunderson said in a statement on the report.
The report said that in order to gain better access to China's computer market, an increasing number of Taiwanese makers have shifted their production sites across the Taiwan Strait in recent years, making Shanghai, Suzhou and Wujiang the key production centers for notebook PCs there.
Overall, the Chinese market will absorb at least 1.8 million notebooks this year, up 43 percent from 2003, and it will expand by at least 20 percent annually until 2008, the report said.
Of those notebook PCs made in China, up to 70 percent are equipped with Intel Corp's Centrino solution, the report said. The Centrino effect, which began growing in earnest in the second half of last year, continue to drive the market, as the processor supports wireless connections between various components of a PC network.
Even so, because the global demand is not as strong as market watchers expected earlier this year, the semi-official Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center (資訊市場情報中心) trimmed its forecast for overall laptop shipments by Taiwanese manufacturers this year from 47.5 million units to 46.7 million.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
AI BOOM: With many stocks trading at historically high levels, the TAIEX is expected to drop about 600 points in the third quarter as investors seek to pocket their profits Taiwan’s main board could experience a technical pullback after the TAIEX soared more than 28 percent in the first half of this year following a strong showing by artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, analysts said on Saturday, predicting that the index would make a comeback in the fourth quarter. On Friday, the last trading session of this month, the TAIEX rose 126.27 points, or 0.55 percent, to 23,032.25, pushing up the main board by 5,101.44 points, or 28.4 percent, in the first six months of the year. Of the major indices in the world, the TAIEX only trailed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index