Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said there was a likelihood it would launch a new smartphone powered by Intel Corp’s Atom chip by the end of this year, in a sign of renewed cooperation.
The remarks came after the world’s No. 4 PC brand suddenly scrubbed a secretly arranged press conference last month to unveil the “Intel inside” mobile phone with local telecoms operator Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), a reliable source said. Acer did not confirm.
It would make Acer the third company in the world after China’s top brand Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc to offer smartphones outfitted with Intel chips as the companies, which made their name in the PC world, share the same ambition of expanding into smartphones to offset the stabilizing growth of the PC market.
“I think there is the chance [of seeing that happen],” Peter Shieh (謝金全), a vice president of Acer’s corporate account business division, told reporters when asked if the company planned to launch a new smartphone running Intel chips by the end of this year.
Shieh declined to provide more details.
Smartphones running Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 8 operating system are already in the pipeline for sale sometime next year, Shieh said.
This year, all six models launched by Acer run the Android system, supported by Google Inc, Shieh said.
Next year, Acer plans to introduce about six new phones and aims to double unit sales to 200,000 in the home market, from 100,000 units this year, Shieh said.
That would be a small portion of Acer’s bigger plan to sell 2 million cellular phones around the globe — as it forecast earlier this year.
“The trend is very clear, that the smartphone is becoming a major device for people to process data on the go,” Shieh said.
Global smartphone shipments are expected to expand to 567 million units this year and reach more than 1 billion in 2016, compared with less than 500 million units last year, according to market researcher NPD DisplaySearch’s tallies released last month.
Acer yesterday launched three new smartphones, including one upscale model code-named CloudMobile S500 that features a personal cloud service for users to temporarily save and share their pictures and data via a remote server.
The CloudMobile S500 went on sale in Europe last month in collaboration with telecoms operator Orange, as well in Australia, Thailand and some other Southeast Asian countries, Acer said.
The firm is also in talks with Chinese telecoms operators to sell the phone in China as well, Shieh said.
Shieh also said the company was diversifying its phone suppliers for various reasons, including supply chain issues, cost efficiency and developing better products for local users.
Acer has added a new Chinese handset company to its existing partners, Taiwan’s Qisda Corp (佳世達) and Compal Communications Inc (華寶), Shieh said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS