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.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
RSS