ASCENT OF A TECH GIANT

TEN years ago, Taiwan technology firms were known as the makers of electronic parts like motherboards.


Back then, they built their reputations working for Western brands like Apple, HP and Motorola.

But today, they’re no longer content to take a back seat in the gadget industry. Brands like Asus, HTC, Acer and MSI are making waves in the global tech market.

Data from research company IDC shows that Taiwanese companies now account for over 90 per cent of all notebooks manufactured in the world, with some of these firms having factories in China.

Taiwanese-branded notebooks accounted for 30 per cent of the worldwide notebook market share in the first quarter of this year, a jump from just over 20 per cent in the same period in 2008.

Mr Bryan Ma, associate vicepresident of devices and peripherals research at IDC Asia-Pacific, said Taiwanese firms have long been known for being contracted as manufacturers of electronic products as well as designing them, a business called original design manufacturing. It’s no wonder that they now have
“huge manufacturing prowess”.

For example, HTC, which famously made the first Google Nexus One phone, first made its name making phones for operators in the United States and Europe. But it began to shift to building its own phones in
2006, releasing its first phone in 2007 in Taiwan and Singapore.

However, Taiwanese brands faced a big struggle on their way up – that of branding. “People who build their own PCs certainly know Asus as a very well respected motherboard brand, as with MSI. But the problem is mass-market users outside Taiwan had no idea who these companies were,” Mr Ma said.

Acer, which has offices in over 50 markets, was able to focus on marketing itself after it split its original design manufacturing business into another company around 10 years ago.

Mr Ma said that many Taiwanese tech firms are still holding onto their original design manufacturing business but “to do so would create a conflict of interest”, he said.

“Many of these firms tend to have customers like HP and Dell, and would be competing with them (with their own branded products),” said Mr Ma.

Still, he believes that there will be less hesitation as Taiwanese makers continue to perform well and build their brand names.

Here’s a look at three Taiwan firms making good, and new products you can buy:


HISTORY: Arguably the firm that made netbooks mainstream, Asus has certainly spread its wings since it began as a modest start-up in 1989.

The company said its brand value is now worth US$1.324 billion (S$1.9 billion) and it had over 3,200 awards to its name last year.

The firm now has a global workforce of more than 10,000, which includes a research-anddevelopment
team.

A first for Asus was its award-winning Eee PC netbook, released in 2007. Other firsts include using leather and bamboo in its designs for notebooks.

Not one to rest on its laurels, the company has even gone into the tablet and electronic book reader space with the Eee Pad and Eee Tablet respectively, both announced at the Computex electronics trade fair that
concluded last week.

ASUS BUY: Eee PC T101MT netbook

WHAT: The best-selling Eee PC netbook from Asus gets an update with the T101MT that sports a twistable 10.1-inch touchscreen.

Being a multi-touch screen, the netbook can register multiple touch inputs at the same time, and you can zoom into images with finger-pinching action. Just 31mm thick, the 1.3kg netbook boasts an Intel Atom N450 processor, with 250GB of storage space and 1GB DDR2 RAM of memory.

HOW MUCH: $798, $100 off usual price.

WHERE: Asus booths A2008 and B2011 at The PC Show, levels 4 and 6, Suntec Singapore

HISTORY: HTC got its start in 1997 as a firm building phones for others, establishing partnerships with many key mobile brands in the process. But in 2007, it released the HTC Touch. In 2008, it launched the
first Android smartphone in the world, the HTC Dream.

Pushing the envelope further, the firm launched a 4G phone, the HTC Evo 4G, withAmerican telco Sprint this
month.

HTC BUY: Desire smartphone

WHAT: One of the latest smartphones from HTC powered by Google’s Android operating system,
the Desire lives up to its name.

With a 3.7-inch touchscreen, the phone runs on a speedy 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Android 2.1. It has 5-megapixel camera that boasts face detection.

HOW MUCH: $898 without telco contract

WHERE: At all authorised HTC retailers





HISTORY: Famed for its Aspire line of products, Acer started off in 1976 on trade and product design in the desktop-computer world under the name Multitech. The firm would go on to develop the first IBM computer
and became formally known as Acer later in 1987.

Global recognition came when it launched its Acer Aspire products in 1995. The firm then moved into other lines of business, such as notebooks. Acer also began to acquire other companies like Gateway and, last year, it overtook Dell to become the world’s No. 2 PC maker.

ACER BUY: Aspire Z5710 all-in-one desktop computer

WHAT: Launched at The PC Show, this all-in-one computer brings together the computer tower and speakers into a 23-inch high-definition touchscreen. The screen has multi- touch capabilities, allowing you to use your fingers to do a multitude of things, from browsing photos to rotating files.

It is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and has a Nvidia Geforce G240M graphics card for gaming needs.

HOW MUCH: From $1,699, $300 off usual price and comes with free Norman Security Suite.

WHERE: Acer booths A2007 and A2024 at The PC Show, level 4, Suntec Singapore
kennyc@sph.com.sg