Mobile, Arm servers, and other challenges facing new Intel’s new chief exec

May 2, 2013 2:54 pm by Robin Kwong

The six-month search is over. Intel’s board has picked Brian Krzanich, current chief operating officer, as the chip maker’s new chief executive, replacing Paul Otellini who left Intel after 8 years, Reuters has reported.

As Chris Nuttall wrote at the time of Mr Otellini’s exit, Mr Krzanich was an early favourite for the top job. He was promoted to chief operating officer in January last year, a role occupied by Craig Barrett, Mr Otellini’s predecessor, before he took the top job. As executive vice-president, Mr Krzanich already occupied the most senior role below the chief executive. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Hardware, Tech |

Japanese text app Line reaches 150m registered users

May 1, 2013 3:42 pm by Robin Kwong

The rise of the chat apps continues. Japan’s Line now has 150m registered users, up from 100m at the beginning of this year, Asahi reports. That’s pretty impressive growth.

The volume of messages sent using apps such as Line, Tencent’s Wechat and Apple’s iMessage have already outstripped traditional texting at the end last year, and will double the volume of SMS by the end of the year. Whatsapp, which says it has 200m monthly active users, is as big as Twitter. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Asia, Mobile, Tech |

Google to benefit from Taiwan-China link?

April 3, 2012 4:28 pm by Robin Kwong

Could Google become one of the beneficiaries of improving ties between Taiwan and China?

The US internet company on Tuesday began construction of its own data center in central Taiwan, one of three that it is building in Asia, after Hong Kong and Singapore. The groundbreaking comes just a week after the Taiwan government approved the construction of the first-ever undersea cable directly linking China and Taiwan. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Asia, Internet |

TSMC: Three chiefs to replace one?

March 5, 2012 9:57 am by Robin Kwong

There’s no denying that Morris Chang, founder, chief executive and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, is a titan of the semiconductor industry after more than 20 years at the helm of the contract chipmaker.

But it may come as a surprise to TSMC shareholders that as the 81-year-old Mr Chang contemplates succession, he feels he could only be replaced by two, or maybe even three people. Read more

Tags: ,
Posted in Asia |

Acer sues former chief exec Lanci – UPDATED

February 7, 2012 12:54 pm by Robin Kwong

Acer and its former chief executive Gianfranco Lanci may have parted ways for almost a year now, but it is apparently not quite water under the bridge between the two sides.

The Taiwanese company said on Tuesday that it has initiated legal action in Mr Lanci’s home country of Italy, alleging that Mr Lanci violated non-compete clauses in the contract he signed with Acer upon leaving in Febuary 2011 – Mr Lanci joined Lenovo as a consultant in September, and the Chinese company last month announced Mr Lanci would head its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, effective April. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Asia, Computers |

Wikipedia goes dark, Google logo blacked out

January 18, 2012 5:50 am by Robin Kwong

This screen on the left is what greeted visitors to Wikipedia on Wednesday, as the online encyclopedia site began its ‘blackout’ protest of two controversial intellectual property bills currently being discussed in the US Congress.

For 24 hours starting from 5am GMT on Wednesday, Wikipedia blocked users from viewing or editing all of its English-language pages except for the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act, the bills it is protesting against. Read more

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Digital media, Internet |

Lenovo appoints former Acer chief to boost Europe operations

January 6, 2012 11:05 am by Robin Kwong

When Acer last March unceremoniously ousted its then-chief executive Gianfranco Lanci, it was not an amicable parting, with both sides apportioning blame on the other for the split.

But if the Taiwanese company had thought they were rid of Mr Lanci by forcing his resignation, then they are sorely mistaken. Mr Lanci was this week appointed the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa by none other Lenovo, Acer’s Chinese rival. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Asia, Computers, Europe |

Schmidt says governments, not Google, should help ease bandwidth squeeze

November 9, 2011 10:18 am by Robin Kwong

When Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Wednesday addressed a Taiwanese audience for the first time, he was in some sense preaching to the choir.

As Mr Schmidt noted, Taiwan already fared better than the US in terms of broadband penetration, the speed of its internet, and the percentage of its people with smartphones. Yet there was still one looming problem, he noted, and that was the rising cost of building more advanced telecommunications networks. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet, Mobile |

Quanta takes on HP and IBM in servers

October 31, 2011 3:10 pm by Robin Kwong

When Taiwan’s Quanta landed orders from Facebook and Google to help custom-build their data centres earlier this year, it was the first step into a new industry for the world’s biggest contract maker of notebooks.

Quanta chairman Barry Lam’s said on Monday, however, that his ambitions go further than just completing built-to-order projects for tech companies. Quanta will instead look to offer a full turnkey solution for servers, he said for the first time. It is a move that will put it into direct competition with industry leaders like HP, Dell, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Read more

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Asia, Computers, Internet, Tech |

HTC warns of weaker fourth quarter

October 31, 2011 2:37 pm by Robin Kwong

HTC has had an amazing run as it grew from anonymity to one of the top Android phonemakers. This has been reflected in its shipments, which have been record-breaking for the Taiwanese company for each of the last six quarters.

But is that run about to end, amid intensifying competition and a weak global economy? HTC said on Monday that it expects fourth-quarter shipments, and revenues, to be down slightly from the third quarter. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Asia, Mobile |
BackOlder entries