Taiwanese companies yesterday expressed their faith in the digital industry as a viable business for the future, if not the immediate future, in view of growing demand for digital televisions in the West.
At a launching ceremony for digital TV Special Interest Group (DTV SIG) yesterday in Taipei, company representatives said Taiwan's strong supply-chain expertise and manufacturing prowess would help the nation's companies surpass their counterparts in Japan and South Korea.
The organization, composed of government and research agencies as well as local manufacturers, aims to promote the nation's digital industry. The government has said it wants to reach its goal of digital-TV services in 80 percent of the nation's households by 2006.
"Taiwan has earned a reputation in integrated circuit (IC) and computer industries in the world, and the experience can help Taiwanese companies move to the digital TV sector, which combines both IC and computer technology," said Alan Pan (潘泰吉), general manager of the multimedia communications division at Tatung Co (大同), one of the biggest local electronics makers.
Pan suggested Taiwanese companies interested in exploiting the digital TV sector -- including high-definition flat-panel TV displays, digital tuners and other video appliances -- target the US market.
The US Federal Communications Commission in August last year mandated that by mid-2007, all TV receiver sets larger than 13 inches sold in the US must contain digital TV tuners, which is expected to boost development of digital television in the market, Pan said.
Against this backdrop, shipments of digital TV sets to the US are expected to total 33.5 million units by 2007, more than half of the worldwide total, the US-based market research firm InStat/MDR said in a report last March. InStat/MDR predicted the global demand for digital TV sets will reach 58 million at that time.
"This is a great opportunity for our high-tech companies," Pan said. "As long as they can work together to create more added value for the product such as turning the digital TV set to a home entertainment device by integrating computer and other home appliances."
However, Pan said local manufacturers should refrain from investing heavily on brandname building and using that brand image to gain more market share.
"In competing head-to-head with global consumer electronics giants such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, brand name is no longer a panacea in this digital TV sector," Pan said. "What consumers care about in the digital era is the content, not the box."
Anne Tien (
"Consumers still have high loyalty to home appliances, so it will be easier to contract manufacturing for leading companies than creating a new brand," Tien 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
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
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
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