Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-12
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) The 2016 Taipei Spring Computer Show will be held April 14-18 at the Taipei World Trade Center, according to the Taipei Computer Association, the organizer of the event.

The five-day show, with the theme of “Brand-new life experiences,” will be divided into four main sections featuring different types of consumer electronics.

One of the sections focuses on female consumers. Items on display in this area will highlight “living technology products” related to skin care. Food processors, such as a capsule breadmaker, will also be showcased.     [FULL  STORY]

TURBULENCE:Taiwanese business leaders see more risks than opportunities this year, with the gap widening to 20 percent, PwC Taiwan chairman Dexter Chang said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

Taiwanese chief executive officers have grim views of the global and domestic economy this year, with exchange rate volatility, tax hikes and rapidly changing technology tastes, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan (PwC Taiwan).

Thirty-six percent of chief executive officers surveyed expect the global economy to weaken this year, the highest since the company launched the survey in 2012, though 43 percent said they expect an extended “status quo,” the survey showed.

Only 16 percent said they expect an upturn.     [FULL  STORY]

SMARTPHONE ZONE:The company said it would start mass production of its latest phone in July and has set a goal of a 25 percent increase in sales over last year’s results

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 11, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) hopes the launch of its next-generation smartphone — the ZenFone 3 — in June will help boost growth momentum in the second half of this year, a company official said on Friday.

“We expect to introduce the new flagship smartphone at the end of June and start mass production in July,” Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) said in a telephone interview.

Together with the launches of other handsets in the second half of the year, the company aims to sell 25 million smartphones this year, an increase of 25 percent from last year’s 20 million units.

The company in February cut its annual shipment target for smartphones from 30 million units to 25 million units.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-09
By: Jackson Chang and Frances Huang, Central News Agency

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) First-quarter sales of MediaTek Inc., Taiwan’s largest integrated circuit designer, dropped more than 9 percent from the previous quarter despite a jump in March but were within its expectations, the company said Friday.

MediaTek posted NT$55.91 billion (US$1.72 billion) in sales for the first quarter, after predicting a range of NT$52.5 billion to NT$57.4 billion.

The figure, however, was 9.4 percent lower than in the fourth quarter of last year due to a slow season resulting from inventory adjustments, said the company, which makes about 60 percent its total revenue from smartphone chips.

In March, MediaTek sales were boosted by strong global demand for smartphones, jumping 61.13 percent from February and climbing 4.59 percent year-on-year to NT$21.34 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-08
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang, Central News Agency

Taipei, April 8 (CNA) Fubon Financial Holding Co., one of Taiwan’s largest financial holding companies, aims to raise NT$36 billion (US$1.11 billion) in funds by issuing 600 million preferred stocks as part of an effort to boost its working capital and strengthen its capital structure.

The issuance of the planned preferred stocks by Fubon Financial, which owns the flagship insurance entity Fubon Life Insurance Co., to issue preferred stocks, is not expected to boost the financial holding company’s capital size and dilute its earnings per share.

Data on the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed that Fubon Financial currently has a paid-in capital of NT$102.34 billion. The company posted NT$3.05 in earnings per share in 2015 on a diluted basis, compared with NT$3.38 recorded a year earlier.     [FULL  STORY]

BLEAK OUTLOOK:An Asustek spokesman said notebook shipments might fall by up to 10% this quarter, as it is usually the weakest quarter for notebook products

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 09, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday reported better-than-expected revenue for the first quarter, attributing the results to a higher notebook computer market share in China and recovering demand in Eastern Europe.

“The growth momentum in notebook shipments was stronger than the company’s forecast,” Asustek spokesman Nick Wu (吳長榮) said.

Asustek shipped 4.9 million notebooks in the first quarter, up 2.03 percent from 4.8 million units a year earlier, while revenue in the first quarter grew 7.7 percent annually to NT$110.05 billion (NT$3.39 billion), Wu said.

The company earlier forecast sales growth for the first quarter to be flat from last year’s NT$102.18 billion.     [FULL  STORY]