Taipei, Feb. 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s HTC Corp. is facing the squeeze in the Android and Windows camps as Nokia Oyj has won more ground in the Windows Phones market and Samsung is outperforming the Taiwanese company in the Android sector, according to U.S.-based research firm Strategy Analytics.

Global smartphones using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system grew 36 percent sequentially to reach 2.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, Strategy Analytics said in a report recently.

Nokia, whose global Windows Phone shipments hit 0.9 million units in the period, overtook HTC and other vendors to become the world’s largest Windows Phone maker with 33 percent market share, the report said.

“Nokia’s Microsoft smartphone growth during the quarter was achieved partly by capturing market share from HTC,” said Tom Kang, director at Strategy Analytics.

“This is a challenging development for HTC because it is also losing ground to Samsung in the Android segment,” he added.

“HTC is now at risk of being caught in a pincer movement between the giants of Samsung in Android and Nokia in Microsoft, and HTC must move with urgency to address the problem,” Kang said.

In February 2011, Nokia and Microsoft announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem.

The report added that Nokia’s growth can be attributed to an expanded portfolio of Windows Phone 7 models such as the Lumia 800, an increased retail presence and highly visible marketing campaigns across several European and Asian countries.

Further, Nokia announced the Lumia 610 on Monday at the Mobile World Congress tech fair in Spain, its first Windows Phone aimed at the mass market.

“Overall, the 610 looks like an attractive package for the mid-market and prepaid customers,” Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum, commented following the product launch.

“The combination of Nokia, Microsoft, an aggressively marketed mid-range Windows Phone device, and an appealing array of Nokia developed applications looks strong on paper,” Cripps said.

“However, should the offering fail to kick start demand, both companies’ hopes for renewed relevance in the smartphone market will be seriously dented,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Samsung was the largest LTE (long-term evolution)-enabled Android phone maker in the fourth quarter of 2011, selling 1.7 million units and taking 41 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics.

LG Electronics Inc. ranked the second with 800,000 units sold and a market share of 20 percent, exceeding HTC’s 700,000 units and 17 percent market share.

For the full year of 2011, Samsung remained the top LTE Android phone maker with sales of 2.6 million units, followed by HTC with 2 million units and LG with 1.1 million units.

HTC has admitted to investors on Feb. 6 that sales of its LTE phones in the United States missed its expectation in the October-December quarter of last year due to less attractive form factors, such as a thicker body and shorter battery life.

The company said it expects to build a new wave of momentum for LTE phones in 2012 as such products gain more popularity in the U.S. and their functionality and design improve.

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201202280010&q=mobile

News from Focus Taiwan

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) People in need of emergency assistance, whether at home or abroad, can get an immediate response if they dial 112 on their mobile phones, an official at the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee reminded the public Monday.

Wang Shu-hui, a senior executive officer of the committee, said 112 has been preset by the global system for mobile communications (GSM) as the emergency telephone number with the highest degree of international accessibility.

Even if a person’s telecommunication service provider fails to provide an emergency service, a mobile phone user can still send an SOS message through the 112 hotline because GSM will automatically search for other service providers to build a link, Wang said.

If a foreign traveler needs help in Taiwan, for example, the person can call the 112 hotline and then follow the instructions to get into contact with Taiwan’s two emergency hotlines: 110 for the National Police Agency and 119 for the National Fire Agency.

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201202270020&q=telecommunication

News from Focus Taiwan

Taipei, Feb. 26 (CNA) The super light and thin laptops that Intel Corp. has placed its bets on are expected to provide new momentum for the slowing personal computer market in 2012, a Taipei-based research firm said recently, as vendors further cut Ultrabook prices.

PC shipments in the first three months of 2012 are projected to fall by 5.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to a report released by DRAMeXchange Technology Inc.

The decline is being attributed to the traditionally weak first quarter and the hard drive disk supply shortage that will not see full recovery until the end of the current quarter, the report said.

Further, PC shipment growth is forecasted at 5.4 percent for the whole of 2012 based upon the back-to-school effect in June, the holiday season and the potential wave of commercial upgrades in the second half of this year, the report said.

From the product perspective, DRAMeXchange said the rise of affordable Ultrabooks will provide the main PC growth momentum in 2012.

The Ultrabook, a new concept for laptop computers introduced by Intel in June last year, will attract more consumers with its thinner, lighter form factor, longer use times, and faster boot and connection features, it noted.

“As Intel’s management of the supply chain enables cost reductions in 2012, Ultrabook retail prices will likely be driven down below US$800, or even US$700,” DRAMeXchange said.

“New models will continue to hit the market in the second half of 2012, which should stimulate purchases,” it added.

Looking at price, standard notebook average selling prices are about US$650 in 2012, so that Ultrabook prices needs to dip below US$700, as a US$50 price gap would be acceptable to consumers, the research firm said.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Asustek Computer Inc., Acer Inc., Lenovo Group, and Toshiba Corp. all introduced Ultrabook products, but their price tags exceeded US$1000, making the products less attractive to consumers.

Given the expected price cut, Ultrabook shipments are forecasted at 20 million units this year, taking 10 percent of the overall notebook shipments compared with 2 percent last year, DRAMeXchange predicts.

The figure will rise to 55 million units in 2013, putting Ultrabook’s market share at 25 percent, it added.

On Feb. 24, Asustek Chief Executive Officer Jerry Shen told investors that the company plans to launch a number of new Ultrabooks in May this year with prices as low as US$699 to meet demand in each price segment and boost sales.

Shen further sees the Ultrabook line accounting for 15-20 percent of Asustek’s total notebook shipments for the year.

In January, Acer announced it would launch cheaper Ultrabooks in the third quarter of this year in response to competition from aggressive rivals such as Lenovo, which unveiled two Ultrabooks, sized 13.3 inches and 14 inches, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Les Vegas with a price tag of US$699.

http://focustaiwan.tw/SearchNews/hyDetailws.aspx?qid=201202260005&q=computer

News from Focus Taiwan

Last Wednesday, the National Communications Commission (NCC) announced plans to shut off the analogue TV signal, region by region, starting on May 7, ostensibly in the interests of maintaining viewers’ rights. The commission should carefully consider regional differences, based on the actual needs of urban and non-urban areas, in deciding the date it shuts off the signal, as well as the nature and level of assistance it offers.

First of all, the commission calculates the number of households in the various regions that will be affected by the switch, based on a national average of 1.8 percent. However, there is more to the story than this figure suggests.

In fact, only 43 percent of households in Chiayi County have cable TV installed. Fewer households in non-urban areas have cable installed compared with those in urban areas and the government policy of making the switch to digital for terrestrial TV is, consequently, going to be felt more keenly in these non-urban areas.

The commission is disregarding that, although there are fewer households in non-urban areas, the actual number that will be affected is greater. It has announced that the timetable for the switch will see the analogue system shut off first in these non-urban areas — where the impact is going to be greatest — and later in the urban areas — where it will have less of an impact. It is mind-blowing that the NCC could be so blind to the needs of the public and force these changes upon them.

Second, since the government is expecting the taxpaying public to foot the bill for all this, it could at the very least come clean about how it would benefit them. It is said that the shift to digital would lead to more channels and higher quality programming with more varied content. However, will the general public really see any of this?

The viewers who are to be most affected by the digital changeover are those without cable or multimedia-on-demand installed and those who do not watch TV over the Internet. They will have to buy a set-top box (STB) or a TV set with an internal receiver before they will be able to watch TV. A digital STB costs about NT$2,000. What percentage of a household’s income is that? A traditional TV aerial costs between NT$300 and NT$600 and with that you would have been able — prior to the switch — to receive any TV signal for life. Now, because of a change in national policy, if people want to watch TV they are obliged to buy another aerial. This is extremely unfair to people living in areas that have older populations and lower household incomes, and who are less affluent.

Policymakers’ failure to take a bottom-up problem-solving approach has already led to urban/rural inequality in household incomes, employment opportunities and public services. It looks like the same flawed approach will lead to inequality in access to broadcast signals. The public has the right to free access to information and terrestrial TV is a public service that the government is obliged to provide for the sake of the public’s right to know.

Of course, the government needs to oversee the switch from analogue to digital and the policy involves a wide variety of different aspects, including technical factors, industrial development and the national interest. However, when the implementation of the policy conflicts with public interest, it is time to look again at the government’s core values in governing the nation and where it places them on its list of priorities.

The cost of the shift to digital should not be borne by the public, especially not when the brunt of it is to be visited on the poor and the vulnerable.

http://www.taipeitimes.net/News/editorials/archives/2012/02/29/2003526609

News from The Taipei Times

Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) will hold press conferences shortly before the opening of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, to attract the attention of the smart device industry.

HTC, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker by volume, has invited media to an event scheduled for tomorrow evening at Cupula Las Arena to “see what’s next,” according to an e-mailed statement. Based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, HTC is expected to launch a quad-core tablet computer, along with two new smartphones powered by Google Inc’s Android 4.0 operating system (OS) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) high-speed broadband technology, said local media reports.

HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) will deliver a keynote speech at the congress on Wednesday on “Mobile OS & Applications,” followed by a panel discussion with Nokia Oyj president and CEO Stephen Elop and Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello.

In a separate invitation, Asustek said it would hold a MWC press conference at noon on Monday. The invitation was attached to a picture of its new Padfone — a hybrid device that is a 4.3-inch smartphone and 10.1-inch tablet.

The launch of the Padfone, powered by a quad-core processor from Nvidia Corp. and the latest Android 4.0 OS, was delayed by Asustek until the first quarter of this year, which means that it missed the US Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping holidays.

The MWC, which runs from Monday to Thursday, is scheduled to cover topics such as mobile operator strategies in developed and developing markets, cloud computing, connected consumers, mobile money, mobile OS and applications, and next-generation networks and technologies, the GSM Association (GSMA) said.

Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA comprises nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators and more than 200 companies in the broader mobile “ecosystem” including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations.

Steven Hartley, a telecommunications company (TELCO) strategy analyst at research firm Ovum, said the progress made by operators in responding to the increase in mobile data traffic will be interesting to note at this year’s event.

“Operators’ growing realization of their position in the ecosystem means that the watchwords at MWC will be ‘partnership’ and ‘co-operation’ as TELCOs look to minimize the impact that mobile data traffic growth will have on their profitability,” Hartley said in a recent report.

“Although there will be more LTE announcements, we do not expect LTE to be portrayed as the ultimate answer to operators’ problems. Instead, it will be one part of the wider solution,” he said.

http://www.taipeitimes.net/News/biz/archives/2012/02/25/2003526296

News from The Taipei Times