VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子) has filed suit against Apple Inc for allegedly infringing three US patents for microprocessors used in mobile phones and tablet computers.
VIA, a semiconductor designer based in Taipei, seeks a jury trial and an order to prohibit Apple, the world’s biggest technology company by value, from selling products containing the inventions in the US, according to a complaint filed on Thursday in a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.
“The products at issue generally concern microprocessors included in a variety of electronic products, such as certain smartphones, tablet computers, portable media players and other computing devices,” VIA said in the complaint.
Apple will dominate Christmas sales of tablet computers as rival products based on Google Inc’s Android system are not competitive enough, researcher Gartner Inc said.
“Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services,” Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi said in an e-mailed note on Thursday. “Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal.”
Worldwide media tablet sales are expected to more than triple this year and reach 63.6 million units, with Apple likely to keep a market share of more than 50 percent until 2014, Gartner said.
Apple’s iPad may account for 73 percent of sales this year, after 83 percent last year. Apart from Apple and Android, no platform is expected to have more than 5 percent of the market this year, Gartner said.
“So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications,” Milanesi said.
Android tablets are expected to account for 17 percent of the market this year, up from 14 percent last year, Gartner said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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