(5 votes, average: 8 out of 10)
Loading ...The price is not right for Apple iPhone
The news out of San Francisco that Apple and Rogers will release the iPhone 3G in Canada on July 11th will be welcomed by the many Mac faithful who have been waiting for a long time to get their hands on this device.
The other bit of news from Apple is that they are slashing prices on the iPhone. While this is good news for consumers who always want to save a buck, I am puzzled why Apple is doing this. The iPhone was an expensive device, but people were willing to pay for it. Some people lined up for hours to drop hundreds on the product. Others drove for hours to the U.S. to purchase an iPhone and then unlock it.
I was in Taiwan recently and I heard similar stories from many Europeans who traveled to the U.S. and purchased an iPhone no matter what the cost. Read the rest of this entry »
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(4 votes, average: 6.5 out of 10) Loading ...Taiwan’s top computer vendors are transitioning
By Paolo Del Nibletto
I’ve just learned that Acer’s Chairman C.T. Wang cancelled his interview for Friday on this tour of Taiwan. It’s really disappointing but Jonney Shih, chairman and CEO of Asus, was still on the docket.
During my time with him I learned that Taiwan’s top computing vendors are transitioning from being manufacturers for top North American brands such as Apple to building up its own brands. This small country of just 23 million people has always been known for making other vendors’ products. Foxcom, for instance, produces the iPhone for Apple.
I also learned there is a secret boat, that isn’t so secret anymore, that has left Taipei harbour carrying boxes stamped with the Apple logo. What’s in the boxes? Well, I thought at first it was iPhones for Canada. But I later found out the boat is heading for somewhere on the West coast of the U.S. So, your guess is as good as mine.
It not that Taiwan’s IT industry is abandoning original design manufacturing (ODM); it just is no longer going to be its core business.
Asustek, for example, is shifting its ODM to a separate independent business unit called Pegatron. Going forward, Asus will be on its own. The manufacturing of computing products has already shifted for the most part to China because of the high labour costs in Taiwan. In the past, manufacturing was a key strength, but over the years their margins have gotten slimmer, and slimmer and slimmer.
Taiwanese products were regarded as cheaply priced goods, said Michael Kuo CEO of Avermedia, who I met later on in the afternoon here. Kuo said that today’s Taiwanese manufacturers such as his company would rather be affordable and not just cheap.
Kuo added that Taiwan wants to educate its people. The company is providing something called a document camera as a better visual teaching aid as part of its product set. They have also adopted six sigma strategies similar to Asus.
Acer, D-Link and Asus are focusing on themselves and specifically on brand, while leaving the manufacturing to the Chinese and Vietnamese. Besides focusing on their own brands, these companies are also keeping important departments such as R&D, engineering and design in Taiwan.
According to Kuo, Taiwan will keep its knowledge to continue creating many more high quality products. This is a fundamental difference between China and Taiwan.
This change in philosophy hit a high note last year with the introduction of the EEE PC notebook by Asustek. This little machine is a major seller at Best Buy in the U.S. It also created quite a stir in Europe and other nations in the Pacific Rim. Before this device, the Taiwanese computing vendor’s strategy was just that – a strategy. It had not yet produced any real results.
This small device has put a spotlight on Taiwanese vendors again. It showed that these companies can be innovative and provide real value. The channel has taken notice with Acer, but look for more resellers to partner with Asustek because of the low-cost EEE PC.
Asus chairman Jonney Shih said there will be many models of the EEE PC so that it can be more than just a consumer notebook. There will be more robust EEE PCs for business and the enterprise and the company is building on its EEE brand with EEE box gaming console, EEE stick video game remote, EEE TVs, and maybe even the EEE toaster that plays music.
One quick hit before I go. Vancouver-based Epic Data International Inc. has appointed Robert Nygren as president and CEO. The former president and CEO of financial software developer Fincentric Corp., Nygren replaces interim CEO James Dodds, who was appointed in October 2006.
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(5 votes, average: 7.4 out of 10) Loading ...Taiwan or bust
By Paolo Del Nibletto
Well I made it to Taipei today. Or is it tomorrow? There is a 12 hour time difference (Eastern) so as you read this on Tuesday it will be Wednesday for me.
Last time I was here for the Computex Show it was quite eventful. The SARs outbreak practically clogged this city up, much as it did to Toronto. Many people here had masks on and at the airport all visitors and citizens were told to go through a full body scan. For those of you who remember the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall, a full body scan looks exactly like that.
However, it was also a time of great achievement for Taiwan, as they were putting the finishing touches on the largest office tower in the world – the Taipei 101 tower, which not surprisingly, has 101 floors. I will be visiting it today for the first time, and I’ll let you know what it’s like.
Taiwan also has a new leader. Ma Ying-Jeou took office last week and has vowed to improve political relations with its neighbour China.
A lot of the new computer manufacturing plants and flat panel fabs that were here in Taiwan are slowly moving over to China. The two main reasons are that land and building costs are lower in China than here, and the Taiwanese workers paid better than their Chinese counterparts. It will be interesting to see how the many computer vendors that make Taiwan their home will fare in the next few years.
I’m here for the Taiwan Excellence Event on behalf of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. During this week I will have the honour of interviewing the heads of Acer, Asus, D-Link, HTC and BenQ as well as the chairman of the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Hsinchu Science Park Administration.
The computing industry here in Taiwan wants to show the world that it can still innovate and, possibly more important, provide value.
I’ll be providing daily updates of my travels and meetings here so make sure you come back to VARbose each day to find out if this region still has what it takes to compete in the IT industry.
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(7 votes, average: 6.43 out of 10) Loading ...Apple iPhone finally coming to Canada
One source from the financial services industry has informed me that Rogers has finally worked out a deal with Apple Canada and yes the much heralded iPhone will be made available to Canadians later on this year.
In typical Rogers and Apple Canada fashion there is no timeline announced and there are no more details about the launch.
The source added that Apple Canada believes this will have Research in Motion shaking in its boots. I found that comment to be ludicrous because, while I can accept that Apple Canada and its customers are excited about the iPhone coming to Canada, the braintrust at RIM are not the sort of people to panic.
Lets not forget that they dominate the market here in Canada and in the U.S. The iPhone has been in the U.S. over two calendar years and it has not be able to displace or come near the Blackberry’s sales performance. According to Gartner Research, the iPhone is at 19 per cent of the market in the U.S., while RIM is at 34 plus per cent. Even the “Other” category beats iPhone by two per cent. Read the rest of this entry »
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Don’t kick your CE device to the curb
Brian Taylor of the Recycling Today Media Group held a session at the CES show that wasn’t about gadgets, or celebrities or really anything that is part of the norm of a typical CES show.
Taylor’s topic today was about the environment and what it means to the consumer electronics industry. Now the IT industry has a head start on recycling and last year was the green IT year if you ask me, but CE, collectively as an industry, has not made any inroads or statements about this.
It may occur anyways with the crossover of IT and CE becoming more significant this year than any other year, but the CE industry on its own has to make its own plan to help out.
Greenpeace is looking at CE and you know you do not want them after you. Read the rest of this entry »
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